Word
年輪
Meaning in Englishannual tree ring
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
年輪 denotes the rings inside a tree trunk that reveal its age and history of growth, and it also appears in figurative use to describe the passage of years and accumulated life experience.
Main meanings
- Literal meaning: the rings in a tree trunk that encode age and past growth conditions.
- Metaphorical nuance: describes the accumulation of time and experiences over a life.
- Contextual usage: common in forestry, dendrochronology, nature writing, and discussions of aging.
How to use it
In scientific and formal writing about trees, 年輪 refers to the actual growth rings; in forestry and dendrochronology it denotes annual increments and growth patterns; in literature and everyday speech it also appears in metaphoric expressions like 年輪を重ねる.
Variants and close terms
- 樹齢 — じゅれい, tree age
- 木の年輪 — ねんりん, tree rings
Composition
- 年 — year, annual
- 輪 — ring, circle
- Together they form 年輪, signaling annual growth rings that document a tree's age and growth history.
Etymology
ねんりん (nenrin) is a compound of 年 and 輪; the on'yomi readings nen and rin fuse to yield this pronunciation, illustrating a phonetic fusion in kanji compounds.
Word class
Noun (名詞)