Meanings
plural pagoda trees
- Styphnolobium japonicum, a tree in the pea family Fabaceae.
Synonyms: Chinese scholar tree, Japanese pagoda tree
- IndiacolloquialdatedidiomaticThe opportunity to make money rapidly in British India.
It might be mistaken […] for the work of some modern architect, built for the Nabob of a couple of generations back, who had enriched himself when the pagoda-tree was worth the shaking.
1881 September 3, Saturday Review, page 3071 more example
India has been transferred from the regions of romance to the realms of fact […] the mines of Golconda no longer pay the cost of working, and the pagoda-tree has been stripped of all its golden fruit.
1877, Blackwood's Magazine, page 575
Synonyms & antonyms
nounStyphnolobium japonicum, a tree in the pea family Fabaceae.
More synonyms by meaning
nountall sparingly branched conical tree having large fragrant yellow flowers with white centers
nounfrangipani of India having an erect habit and conical form; grown in temple gardens
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
(source of wealth): See pagoda (“a kind of gold coin”).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
pagoda tree. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pagoda%20tree
“pagoda tree.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pagoda%20tree. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pagoda tree,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pagoda%20tree.
Source: pagoda tree on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.