: the layer of wood produced by a single year's growth of a woody plant
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebUnder ideal conditions, trees grow quickly, leaving wide annual rings behind. Erin Blakemore, National Geographic, 8 July 2019 Tree rings are particularly diligent record-keepers, recording rainfall in their annual rings; ice cores can keep exquisitely detailed accounts of seasonal conditions going back nearly a million years. Rachel E. Gross, Smithsonian, 16 Apr. 2018
Word History
First Known Use
1681, in the meaning defined above
Kids Definition
annual ring
noun
: the layer of wood produced by one year's growth of a woody plant (as in the trunk of a tree)