noun

pruning

PROO-nihng

noun

The act of trimming excess branches or growth from a plant.

"Autumn is the best time for pruning most fruit trees."

A technique in computing or decision-making that removes unnecessary branches or options to simplify a process.

"The algorithm uses pruning to skip over branches that clearly won't lead to a better result."

How to Use Pruning

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishTrimming away the unnecessary parts of something, whether a plant or a decision tree.

Common pairings

pruning shears tree pruning pruning algorithm

prunings plural

Study it as flashcards or scroll it in Flow — saved to your collection.

Can you complete this real example?

Autumn is the best time for _____ most fruit trees.

From prune plus the -ing ending.