growth ring

American  

noun

1. annual ring.

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growth ring British  

noun

1. another name for annual ring

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growth ring Scientific  

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.

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Etymology

Origin of growth ring

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

For this they combined annual growth ring measurements on wooden building elements with the sudden spike of cosmogenic radiocarbon in 5259 BC.

From Science Daily • May 21, 2024

As a result, a wooden object can be dated by comparing the annual growth ring widths with already existing standard or regional chronologies.

From Science Daily • May 21, 2024

Tree ring scientists match annual growth ring patterns between living and dead trees, and can establish a continuous chronology for thousands of years.

From Science Magazine • Sep. 26, 2023

The study, published in Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, looked at an extinct rudist clam and found that it had a growth ring on its shell for every day of the nine years it was alive.

From Fox News • Mar. 12, 2020

Since the late wood of a growth ring is usually darker in color than the early wood, this fact may be used in judging the density, and therefore the hardness and strength of the material.

From The Mechanical Properties of Wood Including a Discussion of the Factors Affecting the Mechanical Properties, and Methods of Timber Testing by Record, Samuel J.