Word.ws English Dictionary

lichenometry

lichenometry noun: a geomorphic method of geochronologic dating that uses lichen growth to determine the age of exposed rock.

Noun

lichenometry (uncountable)

  1. A geomorphic method of geochronologic dating that uses lichen growth to determine the age of exposed rock.
    • In lichenometry, a lichen is presumed to grow radially at a specific, constant rate: this rate is used to estimate the age of the largest lichen on a rock surface, and thus the length of time the rock has been exposed.
    • The sophistication of approach to lichenometry has increased markedly in the last decade or two.2004, Jean M. Grove, Little Ice Ages: Ancient and Modern, Volume 1, 2nd edition, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 7

Origin of lichenometry

From licheno- + -metry.

Words formed from lichenometry

Questions about lichenometry

What does lichenometry mean?
Lichenometry means a geomorphic method of geochronologic dating that uses lichen growth to determine the age of exposed rock.
What part of speech is lichenometry?
Lichenometry is a noun.

Words near lichenometry in the dictionary

  1. lichenologists
  2. lichenology
  3. lichenometric
  4. lichenometrically
  5. lichenometrist
  6. lichenometry
  7. lichenophagous
  8. lichenophagy
  9. lichenoporid
  10. lichenoporids
  11. lichenose

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lichenometry (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:

Cite this entry: “lichenometry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lichenometry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.