How to Use growth ring in a Sentence

growth ring

noun
  • They’re meant to represent the growth rings of a tree.
    — Dave Skretta, Chicago Tribune, 17 Feb. 2026
  • They’re meant to represent the growth rings of a tree.
    — Dallas Morning News, 16 Feb. 2026
  • Winter and summer are hard to tell apart, so most trees lack growth rings.
    — Nell Zink, Harper's magazine, 28 Oct. 2019
  • The new study used lasers to sample tiny slices of a mollusk's shell and count the growth rings.
    — Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, 11 Mar. 2020
  • Once the wood was smooth, each growth ring was analyzed in detail.
    — Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 6 May 2022
  • Counting growth rings isn’t as simple as counting tree rings.
    — Cody Cottier, Scientific American, 13 Jan. 2026
  • The researchers then used a microscope to count the growth rings on each slice of otolith.
    — Sean Landsman, National Geographic, 2 Aug. 2019
  • Trees in temperate climate zones form a growth ring each year, just under the bark.
    — Aoife Daly, Discover Magazine, 15 Mar. 2022
  • The tight and even growth rings are vital to the instrument’s tone quality.
    — Patrick Raycraft, courant.com, 11 July 2019
  • Tree trunks have growth rings; each concentric circle represents one year.
    — Robin George Andrews, Scientific American, 27 Sep. 2023
  • Even then, the growth rings were too narrow to be examined effectively by eye.
    — Anna Gibbs, Quanta Magazine, 20 Mar. 2023
  • This conclusion was based on slicing through the fossil's limb bones to examine the growth rings.
    — Ari Daniel, NPR, 30 Oct. 2025
  • Inundate an oak tree for a couple weeks and that year’s growth ring will show damage at the cellular level.
    — Adam Rogers, WIRED, 4 Apr. 2018
  • If nothing else, the Bruins added a point in the standings, and McAvoy added a growth ring. Silencing Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, and Wilson is only slightly harder than a preschool teacher maintaining classroom order at noon on Friday.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 16 Nov. 2019
  • Acreage targets are not arbitrary but are based on historic burn intervals recorded in the growth ring of old trees.
    — Arkansas Online, 26 Nov. 2021
  • Liu has colored her hair in brown and brunette stripes to represent the growth rings on a tree, and plans to add one each year to symbolize her own growth.
    — Dallas Morning News, 18 Feb. 2026
  • Liu has colored her hair in brown and brunette stripes to represent the growth rings on a tree, and plans to add one each year to symbolize her own growth.
    — Dave Skretta, Chicago Tribune, 19 Feb. 2026
  • Details in the tusk material include growth rings and hints of animal health.
    — Jeanne Timmons, Ars Technica, 3 May 2023
  • In the crocodiles, which are some of the closest living relatives of dinosaurs, there was more than one growth ring laid down per year.
    — Regina G. Barber, NPR, 9 Mar. 2026
  • By measuring growth rings on the fossils, the researchers found that they were closely clustered toward the outside of the bone.
    — Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 4 Jan. 2024
  • But new research suggests that in the case of Tyrannosaurus rex, some growth rings have escaped detection until now.
    — Cody Cottier, Scientific American, 13 Jan. 2026
  • Traditional aging methods, like counting growth rings on teeth or bones, don’t work with Greenland sharks.
    — Samantha Agate, Kansas City Star, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Teeth have growth rings, much like trees, that determine age as well as minerals gained from the individual's diet.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 15 July 2019
  • By measuring how much Carbon-14 was in each growth ring, the scientists could calculate its age.
    — Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 6 Apr. 2020
  • Like tree trunks, the cross sections contained annual growth rings, which were deposited as the dinosaurs developed.
    — Jack Tamisiea, Discover Magazine, 12 Dec. 2023
  • Paleontologists have often determined how old a dinosaur was by counting the growth rings in its bones.
    — Regina G. Barber, NPR, 9 Mar. 2026
  • The team explains how scientists can examine an octopus’ beak, stylets, and growth rings in the lab to determine how old the animal is.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 11 Apr. 2024
  • Trees then absorb this radioactive isotope, locking a chemical time stamp of the solar storm into their annual growth rings.
    — Jacek Krywko, Scientific American, 10 Apr. 2026
  • The annual growth rings were closer together, making the wood unusually dense.
    — ArsTechnica, 4 May 2026
  • Hidden inside the narrow growth rings of Pyrenees trees lies the strongest evidence yet for what set the Black Death in motion.
    — New Atlas, 11 Dec. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'growth ring.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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