Word.ws English Dictionary

lignify

/ˈlɪɡnɪfaɪ/

lignify verb: to become wood.

Verb

lignify (third-person singular simple present lignifies, present participle lignifying, simple past and past participle lignified)

  1. (intransitive) To become wood.
  2. (intransitive) To develop woody tissue as a result of incrustation of lignin during secondary growth.
  3. (broadly, intransitive) To become rigid or fixed, like something made of wood.
  4. (transitive) To turn into wood; to make ligneous.

Forms of lignify

third-person singular presentlignifies
present participlelignifying
past participlelignified
pastlignified

Origin of lignify

From Latin līgnum (“wood”) + -ify.

Words formed from lignify

Questions about lignify

What does lignify mean?
Lignify means to become wood.
What part of speech is lignify?
Lignify is a verb.
How do you pronounce lignify?
Lignify is pronounced /ˈlɪɡnɪfaɪ/.
What is the past tense of lignify?
The past tense of lignify is lignified.

Words near lignify in the dictionary

  1. lignification
  2. lignifications
  3. lignified
  4. lignifies
  5. ligniform
  6. lignify
  7. lignifying
  8. lignin
  9. lignin sulfonate
  10. lignin sulphonate
  11. ligninase

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lignify (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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