lichen
/ˈlaɪ.kən/
lichen noun: any of many symbiotic organisms, being associations of algae and fungi, often found as white or yellow-to-blue–green patches on rocks, old walls, etc.
Noun
lichen (countable and uncountable, plural lichens or lichen)
- Any of many symbiotic organisms, being associations of algae and fungi, often found as white or yellow-to-blue–green patches on rocks, old walls, etc.
- The Beaches of Lukannon–the winter wheat so tall, / The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog drenching all!1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Lukannon”, in The Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC, page 122
- It was the same rich green that one sees on forest moss or on the lichen in caves: plants which like these grow in a perpetual twilight.1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter XI, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC
- Something which gradually spreads across something else, causing damage.
- Meanwhile, abiding a day of judgment, she fought ceaselessly to deny the bitter drops in her cup, to tear back the slow, the intangibly slow growth of a hot, corrosive lichen eating into her heart.1912 January, Zane Grey, “Shadows on the Sage-slope”, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 202
- Synonyms:
- cancer
Verb
lichen (third-person singular simple present lichens, present participle lichening, simple past and past participle lichened)
- To cover with lichen.
- […] making the rocks assume the mould of age and lichening the trees with damp beauty.1903, J. Gordon Mowat, John Alexander Cooper, Newton MacTavish, The Canadian Magazine, volume 21, page 37
lichen meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
lichen in Hindi
- symbiotic association of algae and fungi
- लाइकेन lāiken, शैवाक śaivāk, शैक śaik, काई kāī
lichen in Tamil
- பாசிக்காளான், பாசிப்பூஞ்சை, லைக்கன், கொப்புளத் தோல் நோய், கொப்புளத்தோடு தடித்த தோல் நோய், தடித்த
lichen in Marathi
- symbiotic association of algae and fungi
- दगडफूल dagaḍphūl, धोंडफूल dhoṇḍphūl, फत्तरफूल phattarphūl, गिरीपुष्पक girīpuṣpak, शैलज śailaj
lichen in Urdu
- symbiotic association of algae and fungi
- اشنہ ušna
More languagesFewer languages
- lichen in Bengali
- শৈবাল śōibal
- lichen in Kannada
- ಕಲ್ಲುಹೂವು, ಮನೆಯ ಚಾವಣಿ, ಗೋಡೆಗಳು, ಕಲ್ಲುಹೂ
- lichen in Tagalog
- ligbus
- lichen in Arabic
- أُشْنَة ʔušna, حَزَاز ḥazāz
- lichen in Malay
- kulampair, liken
- lichen in Persian
- گلسنگ golsang
- lichen in Thai
- ตะไคร่ dtà-krâi, ตะไคร่น้ำ dtà-krâi-náam, หญ้าม็อส mɔ́ɔt
- lichen in Vietnamese
- địa y
- lichen in Myanmar
- လေသိုက် lesuik
Examples of lichen in a sentence
- A lichen is a fungus with symbiotic algae among its cells.
- Campylidia are found in several genera of tropical foliicolous lichens.
- In lichens, thallospores are primarily associated with the genus Umbilicaria.
Synonyms of lichen
Forms of lichen
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | lichens |
| plural | lichen |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | lichens |
| present participle | lichening |
| past participle | lichened |
| past | lichened |
Origin of lichen
Borrowed from Latin līchēn, from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn), from λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick”). Originally used of liverwort; the modern sense first recorded 1715.
Words formed from lichen
- antilichen
- antler lichen
- ascolichen
- ball lichen
- basidolichen
- beard lichen
- blister lichen
- borderline lichen
- British soldiers lichen
- byssoid lichen
- cephalolichen
- chlorolichen
- cobblestone lichen
- comma lichen
- coral lichen
- corticolous lichen
- cracked lichen
- crustose lichen
- crustose placodioid lichen
- cup lichen
- cyanolichen
- discolichen
- dog lichen
- dust lichen
- earth lichen
- edible lichen
- endolithic lichen
- epiphyllous lichen
- equine tropical lichen
- filamentous lichen
- firedot lichen
- foliose lichen
- fruticose lichen
- gelatinous lichen
- globe lichen
- glyphis lichen
- gold lichen
- goldspeck lichen
- horsehair lichen
- horsetail lichen
- Iceland lichen
- jelly lichen
- jewel lichen
- leaf lichen
- lecanorine lichen
- leprose lichen
- letter lichen
- lichenaceous
- lichenal
- lichenase
- lichened
- lichenic
- lichenicolous
- lichenification
- licheniform
- lichenify
- lichenin
- lichenisation
- lichenism
- lichenist
Phrases with lichen
- map lichen
- pin lichen
- lichen moth
- lung lichen
- tube lichen
- wolf lichen
- lichen planus
- socket lichen
- Wilson's lichen
- lichen sclerosus
- lichen spinulosus
- placodioid lichen
2 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with lichen
Questions about lichen
- What does lichen mean?
- Lichen means any of many symbiotic organisms, being associations of algae and fungi, often found as white or yellow-to-blue–green patches on rocks, old walls, etc.
- What is lichen in Hindi?
- Lichen in Hindi is लाइकेन (lāiken), शैवाक (śaivāk), शैक (śaik). See Lichen meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is lichen?
- Lichen can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce lichen?
- Lichen is pronounced /ˈlaɪ.kən/.
- What is the plural of lichen?
- The plural of lichen is lichens.
Words near lichen in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lichen (page history and authors); lichen (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lichen (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-lichen.ogg.
Cite this entry: “lichen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lichen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.