alerce

English

Noun

alerce (countable and uncountable, plural alerces)

1. The wood of the sandarac tree (Tetraclinis).
2. The Chilean arbor vitae (Austrocedrus chilensis).
   • 2018, Richard Powers, The Overstory, Vintage (2019), page 485:

     An alerce in southern Chile, older than the Bible but still putting forth seeds.

3. Fitzroya cupressoides.

Anagrams

• Carlee, Cereal, cereal, claree, cleare, relace

Portuguese

Etymology

From Andalusian Arabic اَلْأَرْز (al-ʔarz), from Classical Arabic أَرْز (ʔarz, “cedar”).

Noun

alerce m (plural alerces)

1. (countable) larch (Larix, a coniferous tree)

   Synonyms: larice, lariço

Further reading

• “alerce”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

From Andalusian Arabic اَلْأَرْز (al-ʔarz), from Classical Arabic أَرْز (ʔarz, “cedar”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈleɾθe/ [aˈleɾ.θe] (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• IPA^(key): /aˈleɾse/ [aˈleɾ.se] (Latin America, Philippines)

• Audio (Venezuela):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɾθe (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• Rhymes: -eɾse (Latin America, Philippines)
• Syllabification: a‧ler‧ce

Noun

alerce m (plural alerces)

1. larch tree (trees of the genus Larix)
2. the wood of the larch tree
3. Patagonian cypress (Fitzroya cupressoides), a species of cypress tree

   Synonyms: ciprés de la Patagonia, lahuán

Derived terms

• alerce africano
• Los Alerces

Further reading

• “alerce”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• alerce on the Spanish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^es
• Larix on the Spanish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^es
• Fitzroya cupressoides on the Spanish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^es