selva

Borrowed from Portuguese selva, from Latin silva. Doublet of silva.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛlvə/

• Audio (Southern England):

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selva (plural selvas)

1. Heavily forested ground in the Amazon basin.

• avels, evals, Laves, Elvas, Veals, 'alves, slave, Slavé, Alves, salve, Levas, laves, vales, veals, valse, Slave

Inherited from Old Navarro-Aragonese selva, from Latin silva, from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- (“beam, board, frame, threshold”). Compare Catalan selva, Spanish selva.

• IPA^(key): /ˈselba/
• Syllabification: sel‧va
• Rhymes: -elba

selva f

1. forest

   Synonym: bosque

2. jungle, rainforest

• bosque

• salvache
• selvatico

• Diccionario ortografico de l'aragonés (Seguntes la PO de l'EFA)

From Latin silva.

• IPA^(key): /ˈselba/ [ˈsel.β̞a]
• Rhymes: -elba
• Syllabification: sel‧va

selva f (plural selves)

1. rainforest

• xungla

Inherited from Old Catalan selva, from Latin silva, from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- (“beam, board, frame, threshold”). Compare Occitan selva, Spanish selva.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈsɛl.βə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈsəl.və]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈsel.va]

• Audio (Barcelona):

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selva f (plural selves)

1. jungle, rainforest

• bosc

• salvatge
• selvatà
• selvàtic
• selvatgí

• “selva”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “selva” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Latin silva, from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- (“beam, board, frame, threshold”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsel.va/, /ˈsɛl.va/^[1]
• Rhymes: -elva, -ɛlva
• Hyphenation: sél‧va, sèl‧va

selva f (plural selve)

1. forest, wood
   • 1300s–1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto I”, in Inferno [Hell], lines 1–3; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate], 2^nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:

     Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita ¶ mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, ¶ ché la diritta via era smarrita.

     Midway upon the journey of our life ¶ I found myself within a dark forest, ¶ for the straightforward pathway had been lost.

2. (by extension, poetic) wood (material), woodland
   • 1374, Francesco Petrarca, Il Canzoniere, Andrea Bettini (1858), p.188, Capitolo XIII:

     [...] e non si trasformasse in verde selva,
     per uscirmi di braccia come il giorno
     che Apollo la seguia quaggiù per terra.

     [...] and may she not be changed to green woodland,
     issuing from my arms, as on the day
     when Apollo pursued her down here on earth.

3. (figurative) mass, multitude, forest
   • 1321, Dante Alighieri, La divina commedia: Inferno, Le Monnier, published 1994, Canto IV, p. 57, vv. 64-66:

     Non lasciavam l'andar perch'ei dicessi,
     ma passavam la selva tuttavia,
     la selva, dico, di spiriti spessi.

     We ceased not to advance because he spake,
     but still were passing onward through the forest,
     the forest, say I, of thick-crowded ghosts.

• bosco
• foresta

• selvicoltore
• selvicultore

• salve, slave, svela, valse

selva f (4th declension)

1. selva

Inherited from Latin silva.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈselβa/

selva f (plural selvas)

1. forest

From Old Galician-Portuguese, from Latin silva, from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- (“beam, board, frame, threshold”). Compare the doublet silva.

• Hyphenation: sel‧va

• Audio (Brazil (Caipira)):

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selva f (plural selvas)

1. jungle

   O leão é o rei da selva.

   The lion is the king of the jungle.

2. woods, forest

   Synonyms: floresta; see also Thesaurus:floresta

3. (figuratively) mass, multitude, forest

• 1844: O apertado revolver das armas formava uma selva de ferros em volta dos dois capitães inimigos, através da qual debalde o conde de Septum buscara multas vezes abrir caminho para ferir Teodomiro, até que finalmente, galgando por cima de um árabe derribado, pudera vibrar um golpe. — Alexandre Herculano, "Eurico, o Presbítero".

• selvagem
• selvageria
• silvestre
• silvícola
• silvicultura

• → English: selva
• → Russian: се́льва (sélʹva)

• “selva”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “selva”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Inherited from Old Spanish selva, from Latin silva,^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- (“beam, board, frame, threshold”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈselba/ [ˈsel.β̞a]

• Audio (Colombia):

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• Rhymes: -elba
• Syllabification: sel‧va

selva f (plural selvas)

1. jungle

   Synonym: jungla

   selva tropical ― tropical rainforest

2. forest

   Synonym: bosque

• “selva”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

laves, levas, salve, vales, valse, velas