softwood

Dictionary: soft·wood (sôft'wʊd', sŏft'-) pronunciation

The wood of a coniferous tree.
A coniferous tree.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: softwood

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Timber obtained from coniferous trees (mainly of the pine and fir families). With the exception of bald cypress, tamarack, and larch, softwood trees are evergreens. Softwood is mostly obtained from the Baltic, Scandinavia, and North America and is the source of about 80% of the world's production of timber. The term sometimes imprecisely means all soft and hard woods used as construction wood in temperate regions. Softwoods of longleaf pine, Douglas fir, and yew are much harder in the mechanical sense than several hardwoods.

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Architecture: softwood

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Wood from the evergreens; usually relatively soft and easy to cut and work, although some woods so classified in the US are harder than others classified as hardwood.

Gardener's Dictionary: softwood

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The wood produced by coniferous trees and shrubs such as pines or Douglas fir, used mostly for construction or lumber, not as firewood. See also hardwood; conifer.

Wikipedia: Softwood

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A typical and well-known softwood

The term softwood is used to describe wood from conifers. It may also be used to describe these trees, which tend to be evergreen, notable exceptions being bald cypress and the larches.

Softwood is the source of about 80% of the world's production of timber, with traditional centers of production being the Baltic region (including Scandinavia and Russia) and North America. The term softwood is used as opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees. Softwoods are not necessarily softer than hardwoods. In both groups there is an enormous variation in actual wood hardness, with the range in density in hardwoods completely including that of softwoods; some hardwoods (e.g. balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while the hardest hardwoods are much harder than any softwood. This is not surprising as there are about a hundred times as many hardwoods as there are softwoods. The woods of longleaf pine, douglas fir, and yew are much harder in the mechanical sense than several hardwoods.

Applications

In general softwood is easy to work: it forms the bulk of wood used by humans.

Prime material for structural building components.
Furniture
Millwork
Raw material as pulp in the production of paper and cardboard
Printmaking
The finer softwoods find many specialty uses.

Controversies

Main article: United States – Canada softwood lumber dispute

A trade dispute over softwood lumber has been ongoing between Canada and the United States.

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Translations: Softwood

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - blødt træ, nåletræsved, blødtræ

Nederlands (Dutch)
zachthout, zachthout boom, zachthouten

Français (French)
n. - bois tendre, conifère

Deutsch (German)
n. - Weichholz

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ξυλεία από κωνοφόρα

Italiano (Italian)
legno dolce, di legno dolce

Português (Portuguese)
n. - madeira branca (f), madeira macia (f)

Русский (Russian)
дерево с мягкой древесиной, светлохвойный лес, мягкая древесина

Español (Spanish)
n. - madera blanda, árbol de madera blanda, de madera blanda

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - mjukt träslag, barrvirke, barrved

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
软木材, 针叶树

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 軟木材, 針葉樹

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 침엽수

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 軟木, 軟材

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ألخشب أللين ألذي يسهل قطعه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮עץ רך, החומר העצי של אורן, אשוחית או עצי מחט אחרים שקל לנסרם‬

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Copyrights:

		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Gardener's Dictionary. Taylor's Dictionary for Gardeners, by Frances Tenenbaum. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Softwood". Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more