student asking question

When the word "wood" is used as plural like "woods," does it become the same meaning as "forest"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Good question. The two terms are actually quite similar, but there is a technical difference. A forest includes both trees and underbrush, whereas woods only consist of trees. Additionally, according to UNFAO, there needs to be at least 60% of tree canopy in a land area of at least 1.25 acres to be considered a forest, whereas only 25%-60% of wood is covered by tree canopy. Thus, you can consider a forest to be slightly larger and more substantially covered by tall trees which can be seen when looking up from the ground. Ex: There are some woods behind my house, but the trees are rather short and sparse. Ex: I can sometimes see small deer and mice in the forest nearby.

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