1. Small evergreen of eastern North America having tiny scalelike leaves on flattened branchlets
   "There was a hedge of tree of life";
   - American arborvitae, northern white cedar, white cedar, Thuja occidentalis
    
2. A symbolic or diagrammatic representation of the interconnectedness and evolutionary relationships of all living things
   "The museum exhibit featured a large tree of life showing how species are related"
    
3. (religion, mythology) a tree associated with immortality, knowledge, or the origin of life in various belief systems
   "In the Bible, Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat from the tree of life in the Garden of Eden"
    
4. (Kabbalah) a mystical symbol representing the ten divine emanations or attributes through which God creates and sustains the universe
   "He studied the tree of life as part of his Kabbalistic practice"

Type of: arborvitae

Part of: genus Thuja, thuja, thuya

Encyclopedia: Tree of life