mangrove

A modification of earlier mangrowe (obsolete) by the influence of grove (“small forest”) through folk etymology. Mangrowe is probably borrowed from Spanish mangle, mangue (whence English mangle) (probably from an Arawakan language (such as Taíno),^[1][2] or a Cariban language) + an unknown word ending.^[3]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmæŋɡɹəʊv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmæŋɡɹoʊv/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mang‧rove

mangrove (plural mangroves)

2. Any of various tropical and subtropical evergreen shrubs or trees chiefly of the Rhizophoraceae family that have aerial roots and grow in clumps in brackish intertidal coastal areas; (specifically) any of various trees of the genus Rhizophora, especially the red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle). [from early 17th c.]

   (genus Rhizophora; Rhizophora mangle): Synonym: (chiefly Caribbean, US) mangle

   • 1839, Charles Darwin, chapter XXIII, in Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 593:

     The channel by which we went to, and returned from Olinda, was bordered on each side by mangroves, which sprang like a miniature forest out of the greasy mud-banks. The bright green colour of these bushes always reminded me of the rank grass in a churchyard: both are nourished by putrid exhalations; the one speaks of death past, and the other too often of death to come.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 204, column 1:

     We called […] in and out of rivers, streams of death in life, whose banks were rotting into mud, whose waters, thickened into slime, invaded the contorted mangroves, that seemed to writhe at us in the extremity of an impotent despair.

   • 2024 September 5, Camilo Freedman, “The vanishing mangroves of El Salvador: ‘All our efforts may only slow the destruction’”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 March 2025:

     This lush forest, just a few miles from the Guatemalan border, teems with diverse wildlife – from crocodiles and crabs to fish darting through seemingly endless mangroves.

3. (by extension)
   1. A forest of such shrubs or trees.

      Synonym: (chiefly Caribbean, US) mangle

   2. Preceded by a descriptive word: any of various shrubs or trees of genera other than Rhizophora which resemble plants of this genus in appearance and habitat.

      Synonym: (chiefly Caribbean, US) mangle

   3. (ecology, also attributive) Synonym of mangal (“a tropical and subtropical coastal intertidal swampland ecosystem characterized by mangroves (sense 1) or similar shrubs and trees”).
      • 2023 September 27, Vincent Doumeizel, “Opinion: Seaweed is Nutritious, Not Slimy. Eating It could Save the World.”, in CNN‎^[2], archived from the original on 13 May 2025:

        There has been some investigation into the potential of seaweeds as a carbon store, and although more is needed, one study says that seaweed habitats are believed to be the most productive of all coastal vegetated ecosystems, and suggested that the world's seaweed sequesters as much carbon as all the planet’s seagrass meadows, saltmarshes and mangroves combined.

• mangrove on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “mangrove”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• venogram

Borrowed from English mangrove, from earlier mangrow by folk etymology influence of grove, from Portuguese mangue, from Spanish mangle (or directly from Spanish), from a Caribbean language.

• IPA^(key): /ˌmɑŋˈɣroː.və/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: man‧gro‧ve
• Rhymes: -oːvə

mangrove m (plural mangroven or mangroves)

1. a mangrove tree

   Synonyms: mangroveboom, wortelboom

2. a mangrove forest

   Synonyms: mangrovebos, vloedbos

• mangroveboom
• mangrovebos
• mangrovereiger

From English mangrove.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑŋroʋe/, [ˈmɑ̝ŋro̞ʋe̞]
• Rhymes: -ɑŋroʋe
• Syllabification^(key): mang‧ro‧ve
• Hyphenation^(key): mang‧ro‧ve

mangrove

1. mangrove (all senses)

• Also mangroveiden is often used for genitive plural.

• (tropical tree or shrub that grows in shallow water): mangrovekasvi
• (habitat): mangrovemetsä, mangrovesuo
• (plant of the Rhizophoraceae family): mangrovepuukasvi
• (tree of the genus Rhizophora): mangrovepuu

• “mangrove”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

From earlier mangrore, borrowed from English mangrove.

• IPA^(key): /mɑ̃.ɡʁɔv/

• Audio:

  (file)

mangrove f (plural mangroves)

1. a mangrove forest

• “mangrove”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Possibly from Dutch mangrove.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /maŋˈrovə/ [maŋˈro.fə]
• Rhymes: -ovə
• Syllabification: mang‧ro‧ve

mangrovê (plural mangrove-mangrove)

1. mangrove (tropical tree or shrub that grows in shallow water)

   Synonym: bakau

• “mangrove” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

• IPA^(key): /manˈɡrɔ.ve/
• Rhymes: -ɔve
• Hyphenation: man‧grò‧ve

mangròve f

1. plural of mangròva

From English mangrove.

mangrove m (definite singular mangroven, indefinite plural mangrover, definite plural mangrovene)

1. mangrove (tree or forest)

• mangroveskog

• “mangrove” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “mangrove” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From English mangrove.

mangrove m (definite singular mangroven, indefinite plural mangrovar, definite plural mangrovane)

1. mangrove (tree or forest)

• mangroveskog

• “mangrove” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

mangrove f

1. inflection of mangrovă:
   1. genitive/dative indefinite singular
   2. nominative/accusative/genitive/dative indefinite plural

From English mangrove.

• IPA^(key): /maŋˈɡroːvɛ/

mangrove c

1. mangrove

• mangroveskog
• mangroveträsk

• mangrove in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• mangrove in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• mangrove in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)