Wood veneers in the simplest of terms are thin slices of natural wood generally less than 1/40” thick. These veneers are typically pressed onto or laminated to thicker core materials such as plywood, particleboard, and MDF to create structural panels to be used in place of thicker hardwood lumber.
This is still real wood but machinery and technology allow the material to be sliced thin without waste instead of sawing it into thick boards. Just like thick boards, it can be plain sawn, quarter sawn, rift-cut, or rotary cut and produce the many different grain patterns associated with each cut.