Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A deciduous North American larch tree (Larix laricina) having short needles borne on spur shoots.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The black or American larch, or hackmatack, Larix Americana, found in moist uplands in British America, and of less size massed in cool swamps in the northern United States. It grows from 70 to 90 feet high, and yields a heavy, hard, and very strong timber, valued for many purposes, particularly for the upper knees of ships. See cut under
larch . - n. The abundant black or ridge-pole pine, Pinus Murrayana, of the Sierras and dry gravelly interior regions of western North America. The allied Pinus contorta, or scrub-pine, of the coast may be also included under the name.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of several North American larches, of the genus Larix; the wood from such a tree
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The American larch; also, the larch of Oregon and British Columbia (Larix occidentalis). See hackmatack, and larch.
- n. The black pine (Pinus Murrayana) of Alaska, California, etc. It is a small tree with fine-grained wood.
WordNet 3.0
- n. medium-sized larch of Canada and northern United States including Alaska having a broad conic crown and rust-brown scaly bark
Etymologies
- Believed to derive from an Algonquian word. (Wiktionary)
- Canadian French tamarac, probably of Algonquian origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This hanging lichen is most often found in tamarack and spruce thickets but can adhere to the limbs of deciduous trees in deeply shaded areas.”
“What Ware had said about the hills of his youth, the woods, the word tamarack that he had dropped carelessly, touched chords of memory as lightly as a breeze vibrates a wind harp.”
“The tamarack is very common about the marshy grounds of this county, attaining its full height in our neighborhood.”
“In the Tahoe region it is invariably called a tamarack or tamarack pine.”
“This morning I collected a handful of larch (also known as tamarack) needles when I was out walking.”
“Far back when I went zig-zagging through tamarack pastures you were my genius, you my cast-iron Viking, my helmed lion-heart king in prison.”
The Huffington Post: Athena Andreadis, Ph.D.: Distant Celestial Fires
“Instead they threw in their hat with France (their traditional enemy since the days of William the conqueror) and Tsarist Russia (the least free and most corrupt country in Europe). tamarack jack”
“I love when the tamarack (aka larch) trees start to green up.”
“In boreal Alaska, a larch sawfly outbreak killed most of the larger and older tamarack (Larix laricina) trees during a warm period in the decade of the 1990s, and aspen leaf miner (Phyllocnistis populiella) appeared at outbreak levels (142,000 ha) by 2003 [28].”
Climate change and insects as a forest disturbance in the Arctic
“With the help of our father, we built a tree house in the nearby tamarack trees; a rope made the perfect vine for swinging.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tamarack’.
-
A-R-A Words
It's an odd-looking pattern in English. Please add words if it makes you happy. :) K-POW! Wow @gulyasrobi!
scarab, Arawak, Sahara, Arab, pharaoh, caravan, carat, parachute, arachnid, Saran Wrap, Sarah, tarantella and 492 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
• The bonhomous lynchpin - And other ...
plinth, starboard, bonhomie, bulkhead, brethren, gabardine, anon, lynchpin, vine, yoke, sequin, marigold and 12 more...
-
From the Algonquin et al.
Words derived from the innumerable languages of native Americans and the First Nations of Canada. I want to shine some light on this underexposed etymological background to so many common (and som...
raccoon, persimmon, mummichog, caucus, bayou, caribou, geoduck, chipmunk, skunk, opossum, moose, squash and 84 more...
-
Words Covered in Faery Dust (T)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
tabard, tadpole, taffeta, taffy, talisman, tallgrass, tam, tamarind, tamarack, tambourine, tango, tansy and 144 more...
-
Learned (or Encountered) in Reading
I have a list for words learned from Newsweek; here's where I keep all the stuff from other shit I read.
Except when I'm looking stuff up and find new words that way. Those go on their...cellie, laminectomy, mridangam, terroir, hypospadias, crus, corpora cavernosa, crura, uretheral meatus, bartholin's gland, coloquintida, colopexy and 921 more...
-
Trees!
mahogany, sequoia, balsa, sandalwood, tamarind, balsam, eucalyptus, birch, willow, buttonwood, evergreen, loblolly and 501 more...
-
Monovocalics
Words that have only one of the vowels. On this list I include only words with at least three vowels. When I first started the list, if a word had several forms, I generally listed only the one wit...
syzygy, mirific, cumulus, homolog, monocot, bedewed, jezebel, referee, bikini, minikin, locomotor, terebenthene and 2359 more...
-
The Decemberists
The Decemberists tend to use a lot of interesting words in their songs.
parapet, wastrel, mescaline, indolent, balustrade, vagabond, sprightly, grapple, gunwale, odalisque, timberline, moribund and 116 more...
-
Chromonyms
These chromonyms are defined as colors in at least one dictionary (mostly MW3). (Actually there's one fake, for reasons I'll explain someday.) They are all one-word nouns such as "kelly", which can...
absinthe, acacia, acorn, alabaster, alesan, almond, aloma, amaranth, amber, amethyst, anemone, anil and 821 more...
-
Decemberists Words
parapet, catacomb, wastrel, indolent, balustrade, vagabond, odalisque, moribund, legionnaire, frigidaire, laudanum, fecundity and 29 more...
-
Tree names for naming rabbits, ones I...
juniper, willow, sequoia, hickory, hazel, mahogany, sycamore, walnut, holly, rowan, tamarack, acacia and 7 more...
-
ogham
birch, rowan, alder, willow, ash, hawthorn, oak, holly, hazel, apple, blackthorn, elder and 79 more...
-
A River Runs Through It
Words and phrases from A River Runs Through It, & Other Stories by Norman Maclean.
gyppo, carborundum, railroader, prat, nemo me impune la..., manse, rune, underskin, dairymaid, angleworm, snoot, scarifying and 32 more...
-
wild as apples
Plants - no rhyme or reason.
hawthorn, rowan, birch, juniper, gillyflower, moss, pine, daphne, cowslip, larch, yew, tamarack and 12 more...
-
mharvey75's Words
plangent, fungible, eschatological, tamarack, fontanelle, chaparral, bombazine, wastrel
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tamarack.

hernesheir Oh, to see the tamaracks all turn to yellow like maple trees in the fall! Still, I wonder if Scarlet Tanagers ever visit boreal forests where tamaracks dwell. A case of poetic license? Sep 20, 2009
bilby
A ball of fire shoots through the tamarack
In scarlet splendor, on voluptuous wings;
Delirious joy the pyrotechnist brings,
Who marks for us high summer’s almanac.
- Joel Benton, 'The Scarlet Tanager'. Sep 20, 2009