growth ring

noun

1. annual ring.

growth ring

noun

1. See annual ring
   another name for annual ring

growth ring

1. A layer of wood formed in a plant during a single period of growth. Growth rings are visible as concentric circles of varying width when a tree is cut crosswise. They represent layers of cells produced by vascular cambium.
2. ◆ Most growth rings reflect a full year's growth and are called annual rings. But abrupt changes in the environment, especially in the availability of water, can cause a plant to produce more than one growth ring in a year.
3. See more at dendrochronology
4. A similar layer in a part of an animal marking a period of growth, such as an annulus in a fish scale.

Word History and Origins

Origin of growth ring¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

On three of the finds, Kuitems and Dee, both of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and their team identified an annual tree growth ring that displayed a signature spike in radiocarbon levels.

From Science News

We cored the largest mangrove trees at three sites, extracting pencil-shaped samples from their trunks that showed their growth rings, to get a sense of how long these trees lived—about 100 years—and how many generations of trees had lived there.

From Popular-Science

In the late 19th century, the Finnish physicist Karl Selim Lemström observed that the width of growth rings in fir trees near the Arctic Circle followed the cycle of the aurora borealis, widening when the northern lights were strongest.

From Science News

To determine the age of a fish, scientists count growth rings on their scales, much like tallying the rings of a tree trunk.

From Popular-Science

Past studies observed these growth rings with reflected light, like that found in a flashlight.

From Popular-Science

The summerwood constitutes a large part of the annual growth ring.

From Project Gutenberg

At this time the formation of a major growth-ring is completed.

From Project Gutenberg

The wood is very strong, hard, and compact, and the annual growth ring is largely dense summerwood.

From Project Gutenberg

The wood is ring-porous, that is, the inner edge of the yearly growth ring has a row of large pores.

From Project Gutenberg