alder

• owler (Lancashire)
• aller (UK, dialectal)

Inherited from Middle English aldre, alder, aller, from Old English alor, from Proto-West Germanic *aluʀu, from Proto-Germanic *aluz, *alusō, *alizō, *alisō.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɔːldə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US, Canada)
  • (without the cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɔldɚ/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɑldɚ/

alder (plural alders)

1. Any of several trees or shrubs of the genus Alnus, belonging to the birch family.
   • 1923 October, Robert Frost, “[Notes.] The Axe-helve.”, in New Hampshire […], New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 37:

     I’ve known ere now an interfering branch / Of alder catch my lifted axe behind me. / But that was in the woods, to hold my hand / From striking at another alder’s roots, / And that was, as I say, an alder branch.

   • 1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273:

     Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper.

   • 1967, J. A. Baker, The Peregrine, page 40:

     That's what the tiercel was doing when I found him again in the alder.

Clipping of alderman.

alder (plural alders)

1. An alderman or alderwoman.
   • 2004, Stephanie Luce -, Fighting for a Living Wage, page 121:

     Almost immediately, city alders contacted the campaign to negotiate an ordinance.

   • 2013, Dawn Day Biehler, Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats, page 180:

     Chicago's mayor Edward Kennelly, the city alders, and many white Chicagoans opposed this siting plan.

   • 2017 September 28, Isabel Bysiewicz, “Eidelson reflects on time as alder”, in Yale Daily News:

     After three years as Ward 1 alder, Sarah Eidelson ’12 will leave city government at the end of the year.

• Adler, Alred, Eldar, Leard, Radel, Radle, lader, lared

Derived from Old Danish aldær, from Old Norse aldr, from Proto-Germanic *aldrą.

alder c (singular definite alderen, plural indefinite aldre)

1. age

• “alder” in Den Danske Ordbog

alder

1. alternative form of aldre

Inherited from Old Norse aldr, from Proto-Germanic *aldrą. Akin to ale (“to raise”), from ala.

alder m (definite singular alderen, indefinite plural aldere or aldre or aldrer, definite plural alderne or aldrene)

1. age

• “alder” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Inherited from Old Norse aldr, from Proto-Germanic *aldrą. Akin to ale (“to raise”), from ala.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑldɛr/

alder m (definite singular alderen, indefinite plural aldrar, definite plural aldrane)

1. age

• “alder” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• althēr

From al (“wholly”) +‎ thēr (“there”).

aldēr

1. then
2. when

aldēr

1. when
2. if, in case that

• ᛆᛚᚦᚽᚱ (Runic)

Inherited from Old Norse allr, from Proto-Germanic *allaz.

alder

1. all
2. whole, complete

• Swedish: all

Inherited from Old Norse aldr, from Proto-Germanic *aldrą.

alder m

1. lifetime
2. age (how old someone or something is)
3. age, era
4. old age

• Swedish: ålder