How do you use the word "mahogany" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "mahogany": Tom has a mahogany desk. I have an old mahogany desk.

Mahogany Meaning

/məˈhɒɡəni/

Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounThe valuable wood of any of various tropical American evergreen trees, of the genus Swietenia, mostly used to make furniture.

nounAny of the trees from which such wood comes.

Sentence Examples

Tom has a mahogany desk.

I have an old mahogany desk.

I bought the mahogany table because it was the most elegant.

CEFR Practice Quiz

The new desk was made of ____, a hard reddish-brown wood used for fine furniture.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The desk was made of rich and very beautiful ____ wood and was highly polished to reflect the light.

Word Origin & History

A word of unknown origin, concocted in either English or Middle Dutch from one or more exotic phytonyms and common European words. alternative etymologies Alternatively from Portuguese mogano, mógono, obsolete forms of mogno, itself of unknown origin (often suggested to be from the English word instead of the reverse), perhaps from an extinct indigenous language, such as a Mayan language originally spoken in Honduras or a South American language, but no known cognates survive. Another theory attempts to link Yoruba moganwo (“trees”, literally “tall ones”), but this has been criticized.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away[…]." — 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

"In 2003, at Neal Auction Company in New Orleans, an 1810s mahogany armoire inlaid with ribbons and vines brought $140,000 (the presale estimate was $30,000 to $50,000)." — 2010 December 9, Eve M. Kahn, “Exploring the Art of Louisiana Furniture”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 18 Jun 2020:

"Next day, the fish was 'scrowled' on a gridiron over the fire and eaten with 'mahogany', a powerful mixture of black treacle and gin, a favourite tipple of Cornish fishermen for keeping out the cold!" — 2006, Sara Paston-Williams, Fish: Recipes from a Busy Island, page 39:

"Better she, my dear, than a black Mrs. Sedley, and a dozen of mahogany grandchildren." — 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 6, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

"Poets eat and drink without stint — and seldom at their own cost — for what man of mark or likelihood in the moneyed world is there, who is not eager to get their legs under his mahogany?" — 1842, Dublin University Magazine: A Literary and Political Journal:

Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words