Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

petrology

American  
[pi-trol-uh-jee] / pɪˈtrɒl ə dʒi /

noun

  1. the scientific study of rocks, including petrography and petrogenesis.


petrology British  
/ pɛˈtrɒlədʒɪ /

noun

  1. petrol. the study of the composition, origin, structure, and formation of rocks

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

petrology Scientific  
/ pə-trŏl′ə-jē /
  1. The scientific study of the origin, composition, and structure of rocks.


Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of petrology

First recorded in 1805–15; petro- 1 + -logy


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

“It's like our moonshot. It's going to transform a lot of things,” says Yan Lavallée, a professor of magmatic petrology and volcanology at the Ludwigs-Maximillian University in Munich, and who heads KMT’s science committee.

From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2024

“But the petrology is interesting and special regardless,” she says.

From Science Magazine ● May 25, 2023

The mining, the petrology, the archaeology — the artistically gifted, straight-F student, trying to live up to his brilliant, academic, domineering father.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 21, 2022

I was meant to focus on sedimentary petrology, working out the origin of sediments in 1-metre cores from the Antarctic ice shelf.

From Nature ● Jan. 25, 2012

Geology: nothing about geomorphology or stratigraphy or even petrology.

From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 14,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training