Timber vs. Wood

Main Difference

The main difference between Timber and Wood is that the Timber is a wood that has been processed into beams and planks and Wood is a fibrous material from trees of other plants.

• Timber

  Lumber (American English; used only in North America) or timber (used in the rest of the English speaking world) is a type of wood that has been processed into beams and planks, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for structural purposes but has many other uses as well.

  There are two main types of lumber. It may be supplied either rough-sawn, or surfaced on one or more of its faces. Besides pulpwood, rough lumber is the raw material for furniture-making and other items requiring additional cutting and shaping. It is available in many species, usually hardwoods; but it is also readily available in softwoods, such as white pine and red pine, because of their low cost.

  Finished lumber is supplied in standard sizes, mostly for the construction industry – primarily softwood, from coniferous species, including pine, fir and spruce (collectively spruce-pine-fir), cedar, and hemlock, but also some hardwood, for high-grade flooring. It is classified more commonly made from softwood than hardwoods, and 80% of lumber comes from softwood.

• Wood

  Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin that resists compression. Wood is sometimes defined as only the secondary xylem in the stems of trees, or it is defined more broadly to include the same type of tissue elsewhere such as in the roots of trees or shrubs. In a living tree it performs a support function, enabling woody plants to grow large or to stand up by themselves. It also conveys water and nutrients between the leaves, other growing tissues, and the roots. Wood may also refer to other plant materials with comparable properties, and to material engineered from wood, or wood chips or fiber.

  Wood has been used for thousands of years for fuel, as a construction material, for making tools and weapons, furniture and paper, and as a feedstock for the production of purified cellulose and its derivatives, such as cellophane and cellulose acetate.

  In 2005, the growing stock of forests worldwide was about 434 billion cubic meters, 47% of which was commercial. As an abundant, carbon-neutral renewable resource, woody materials have been of intense interest as a source of renewable energy. In 1991 approximately 3.5 billion cubic meters of wood were harvested. Dominant uses were for furniture and building construction.

• Wood (noun)

  the hard fibrous material that forms the main substance of the trunk or branches of a tree or shrub, used for fuel or timber

  "a block of wood"

  "best quality woods were used for joinery"

• Wood (noun)

  wooden barrels used for storing alcoholic drinks

  "wines from the wood"

• Wood (noun)

  a golf club with a wooden or other head that is relatively broad from face to back (often with a numeral indicating the degree to which the face is angled to loft the ball)

  "he hit the ball with a three-wood"

• Wood (noun)

  a shot made with a wood

  "he's hitting a wood for his second shot"

• Wood (noun)

  another term for bowl (sense 1 of the noun)

• Wood (noun)

  an area of land, smaller than a forest, that is covered with growing trees

  "a thick hedge divided the wood from the field"

  "a long walk in the woods"

Wood Illustrations