Word.ws English Dictionary

ghost tree

ghost tree noun: the dove tree, Davidia involucrata, which has large white bracts resembling white sheets like those used to represent ghosts.

ghost tree: the dove tree, Davidia involucrata, which has large white bracts resembling white sheets like those...
Image: Arboretum des Barres, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

ghost tree (plural ghost trees)

  1. The dove tree, Davidia involucrata, which has large white bracts resembling white sheets like those used to represent ghosts.
  2. (plural, usually) A dead or dying tree in a relatively intact state in a ghost forest.
    • […] including ghost trees. These dead, leafless trees were the victims of saltwater intrusion as brackish water moved in from the bay.2022, Erin Gifford, Hiking Coastal Trails of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, page 128
    • Saltwater intrusion threatens to ruin farmland and has already turned once-vibrant forests into collections of "ghost trees." Up and down the coast, dense thickets of invasive phragmites have displaced native species.2025, McKay Jenkins, Joy Shindler Rafey, The Maryland Master Naturalist's Handbook, page 93

Synonyms of ghost tree

Forms of ghost tree

pluralghost trees

Questions about ghost tree

What does ghost tree mean?
Ghost tree means the dove tree, Davidia involucrata, which has large white bracts resembling white sheets like those used to represent ghosts.
What part of speech is ghost tree?
Ghost tree is a noun.
What is the plural of ghost tree?
The plural of ghost tree is ghost trees.

Words near ghost tree in the dictionary

  1. ghost towns
  2. ghost track
  3. ghost tracks
  4. ghost train
  5. ghost trains
  6. ghost tree
  7. ghost trees
  8. ghost turd
  9. ghost turds
  10. ghost vote
  11. ghost voter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ghost tree (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “ghost tree.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ghost_tree. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.