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rainforest

UK/ˈɹeɪn.fɒɹ.ɪst/US/ˈɹeɪn.fɔɹ.ɪst/
nounB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,797 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: rainforests

A rainforest is the tall wet tropical forest that holds half the world's species. Clear the rainforest, rainforest canopy, protect the rainforest.

The soil under one is surprisingly poor, because almost all the nutrients are locked up in the living trees, which is why cleared land is exhausted within a few years of farming. Temperate rainforests exist too, on wet western coasts.

Bild von bere von awstburg auf Pixabay https://pixabay.com/de/photos/die-dschungel-von-chiapas-1865639/ · CC0

Definitions of rainforest

  1. 1nounrainforestThe tall wet tropical forest holding half the world's species.B1+

    “Jaguars, parrots and monkeys live in the Amazon rainforest.”

rainforest is a forest.

Where it comes from

Rain plus forest, translating the German Regenwald, coined by a botanist in 1898.

  1. German

    Regenwald

  2. English, today

    rainforest

From rain + forest, a German Regenwald.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Nature & Weather

Practise this word

rainforest in the wild

  • Four nations have "Amazonas" as the name of one of their first-level administrative regions, and France uses the name "Guiana Amazonian Park" for French Guiana's protected rainforest area.

    Amazon rainforest

  • Rainforests can generally be classified as tropical rainforests or temperate rainforests, but other types have been described.

    Rainforest

  • Estimates vary from 40% to 75% of all biotic species being indigenous to the rainforests.

    Rainforest

  • Tropical rainforests are a type of tropical moist broadleaf forest, that includes the more extensive seasonal tropical forests.

    Tropical rainforest

  • Tropical rainforests have a long history of ecological succession, influenced by natural events and human activities.

    Tropical rainforest

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.