Lichen Meaning
/ˈlaɪ.kən/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAny 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.
nounSomething which gradually spreads across something else, causing damage.
Sentence Examples
Caribou eat almost only lichen during the winter.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The gray-green ____ on the old tombstone thrived in the damp, shaded cemetery.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We saw some colorful ____ growing on the rocks while we were hiking in the mountains on Saturday morning.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Latin līchēn, from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn), from λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick”). Originally used of liverwort; the modern sense first recorded 1715.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"The nibble marks of the stone adze were still visible, though crusted over with scale lichens in most places."
— 1915, John Muir, chapter V, in Travels in Alaska:
"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:
"[…] 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:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The gray-green ____ on the old tombstone thrived in the damp, shaded cemetery.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We saw some colorful ____ growing on the rocks while we were hiking in the mountains on Saturday morning.