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a small tree or shrub belonging to the genus Acacia, of the mimosa family, having clusters of small yellow flowers.
any of several other plants, as the locust tree.
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Contemporary Examples

In every direction there were wide skies, gold grass hills and acacia trees.
Borana Joins the Fight to Save Kenya’s Rhinos…and Wants You to Help Too Joanna Eede February 17, 2014

We saw a small group of women and children under an acacia tree and my friend and I walked toward them.
Isabel Allende: How a Mysterious Baby Girl Sparked My Fight for Women Isabel Allende October 19, 2012

Beyond the river, caramel plains rolled away to the distant horizon, spotted with acacia trees and slow-moving giraffe.
Walking With Wildebeests: Exploring the Serengeti on Foot Joanna Eede July 8, 2013

The basic acacia model, equipped with seven branches that have a combined capacity of 1.4 kilowatts, costs $100,000.
Parks and Regeneration The Daily Beast November 2, 2014

Historical Examples

Death lurked for her, there outside in the dark, from behind the acacia tree!
A Bride of the Plains Baroness Emmuska Orczy

What walks there are where the air is all fragrance of acacia and rose and orange blossoms!
Italy, the Magic Land Lilian Whiting

Fruits of various species of acacia are in profusion; and, although less decidedly tropical, imply a warm climate.
A Manual of Elementary Geology Charles Lyell.

No. 31562, which was obtained in a yucca and acacia association, had little fat.
Birds from Coahuila, Mexico Emil K. Urban

The perfume from the recently burnt bushes of acacia pendula was most fragrant, and, to me, quite new.
Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Vol 1 (of 2) Thomas Mitchell

The leaf-movements of the acacia, the sensitive plant, etc., are well known.
Creative Evolution Henri Bergson

noun
any shrub or tree of the tropical and subtropical leguminous genus Acacia, having compound or reduced leaves and small yellow or white flowers in dense inflorescences See also wattle1 (sense 4)
false acacia, another name for locust (sense 2), locust (sense 3)
gum acacia, another name for gum arabic
n.

1540s, from Latin acacia, from Greek akakia “thorny Egyptian tree,” perhaps related to Greek ake “point, thorn,” from PIE root *ak- “sharp” (see acrid). Or perhaps a Hellenization of some Egyptian word. From late 14c. in English as the name of a type of gum used as an astringent, etc.

(Heb. shittim) Ex. 25:5, R.V. probably the Acacia seyal (the gum-arabic tree); called the “shittah” tree (Isa. 41:19). Its wood is called shittim wood (Ex. 26:15,26; 25:10,13,23,28, etc.). This species (A. seyal) is like the hawthorn, a gnarled and thorny tree. It yields the gum-arabic of commerce. It is found in abundance in the Sinaitic peninsula.