Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Lichen |
LichenNoun1. Any of several eruptive skin diseases characterized by hard thick lesions grouped together and resembling lichens growing on rocks. 2. Any thallophytic plant of the division Lichenes; occur as crusty patches or bushy growths on tree trunks or rocks or bare ground etc. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "lichen" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1818. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Lichens are symbiotic organisms made up by the association of microscopic green algae or cyanobacteria and filamentous fungi. Lichens take the external shape of the fungal partner and hence are named based on the fungus. The lichen fungus is typically a member of the Ascomycota, rarely a member of the Basidiomycota. Some place lichens in their own division (Mycophycophyta) but this ignores the fact that the components belong in separate lineages.
''Crustose and foliose lichens on a wall (enlarge image)''Lichens live on the soil of forests, on the surface of rocks, or on walls. They are often the first to settle in uninhabited places, constituting the sole vegetation of some extreme environments such as on high mountains and at high latitudes. Some of them live in the tough conditions of deserts, and others survive on frozen soil of the arctic regions. Some lichens have the aspect of leaves (foliaceous lichens); others cover their support like a crust (crustaceous lichens); others adopt shrubby forms (fruticose lichens); and there are the gelatinous lichens. See lichen types below.
When seen under magnification, a section through the lichen thallus reveals two layers of interlaced filaments (fungus), among which are scattered round green structures named gonidia (sing. gonidium), which are algae. The alga contains chlorophyll that permits the plant to live in a purely mineral environment. Mostly the fungus protects the alga against drought. Soredia (sing. soredium), which contain algal cells as well fungal filaments, come loose from the lichen and serve as a means for their reproduction and dispersal. Lichens are the only food available for many animals living in arctic regions, such as reindeer.
Although they can grow in harsh environments in nature, many lichens are sensistive to man-made pollutants. Hence, they could be used as pollution indicators.
Squamulose (mostly foliose)
lichen (enlarge)Fruiticose lichen (enlarge)
Usnea australisSource: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Lichen."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Vegetable | Bush, jungle, prairie; heath, heather; fern, bracken; furze, gorse, whin; grass, turf; pasture, pasturage; turbary; sedge, rush, weed; fungus, mushroom, toadstool; lichen, moss, conferva, mold; growth; alfalfa, alfilaria, banyan; blow, blowth; floret, petiole; pin grass, timothy, yam, yew, zinnia. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Lichen |
| English words defined with "lichen": arctic moss, ascolichen ♦ basidiolichen, beard lichen, beard moss ♦ Cetraria islandica, Cetraric, Cetrarin, Cladonia rangiferina, crustose thallus, Cup-moss ♦ Dog lichen ♦ fungus family, fungus genus ♦ Gonimous ♦ Iceland lichen, Iceland moss ♦ lecanora, Lecanoric, Licheniform, Lichenin ♦ Map lichen ♦ Orchilla weed ♦ Parelle, Parietic ♦ reindeer lichen, reindeer moss, Rock tripe ♦ Tree lungwort, Treebeard ♦ Usnea barbata ♦ Vulpic. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "lichen": biatorine ♦ cephalodium, cyanobiont, cyphella ♦ Etretinate ♦ lichenoid eruptions due to colour developers, lichenometry ♦ microlichen, mycobiont ♦ Parapsoriasis, photobiont, phycobiont, polarilocular, propagule ♦ soralium ♦ taiga. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "lichen": Fucus. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Lichen" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (lichen), Romanian (lichen). |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Lichen and other patterns on an alder tree on the Oregon coast. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. Lichen. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). |
 | Lichen on a rock outcrop at Steens Mountain, Oregon. Credit: Mark Armstrong. |  | Lichen. Credit: Jerry Sintz. |
 | Lichen at Point Colville with a depression of possibly a foot print where someone turned. Credit: John Craig. |  | Close up of Lichen at Point Colville. Credit: John Craig. |
 | Trail along rock with lichen at Point Colville. Credit: John Craig. |  | Ancient Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) with yellow-green lichen (Letharia vulpina). Credit: John Craig. |
 | Farshot of Ceanothus (pumila) and lichen. Credit: John Craig. |  | Packrat deposit and lichen on rock. Credit: Frank Lang. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Grave images 4" by Louise Ingram Commentary: "Close up of lichen and a spider on a grave." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | This stone is exempt no more than the rest from the leprosy of time, from the mould, the lichen, and the droppings of the birds |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Lichen" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Lichen" is used about 115 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 115 | 30,138 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "lichen": beard lichen ♦ Dog lichen ♦ horsehair lichen ♦ horsetail lichen ♦ Iceland lichen ♦ Lichen Nitidus ♦ Lichen Planus ♦ lichen ruber planus ♦ Lichen Sclerosus et Atrophicus ♦ lichen simplex aigu ♦ lichen urticatus ♦ Lung lichen ♦ manna lichen ♦ Map lichen ♦ reindeer lichen. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "lichen": lichen-clad, lichen-covered, lichen-crusted, lichen-dapple, lichen-dappled, lichen-eating, lichen-encrusted, lichen-grey, lichen-like, lichen-silent, lichen-stains. | |
Ending with "lichen": anti-lichen. | |
Containing "lichen": alga-lichen-moss. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "lichen"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | liken. (various references) | |
Arabic | حزاز مرض, حزاز, الأ شنة نبات. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | лишей. (various references) | |
Chinese | 苔藓病, 青苔 . (various references) | |
Czech | lišejník. (various references) | |
Danish | lichen, lav (low, shallow, superficial). (various references) | |
Dutch | korstmos. (various references) | |
Farsi | گلسنگ(گ.ش.), باگلسنگ پوشاندن . (various references) | |
Finnish | jäkälä. (various references) | |
French | lichen. (various references) | |
German | flechte (braid, plait, tress). (various references) | |
Greek | λειχήνα (ringworm). (various references) | |
Hungarian | zuzmó, sömör (cracked heel, grapes, herpes, ringworm, tetter). (various references) | |
Italian | lichene (mousse de chêne, oak moss). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 苔類 , 苔癬 , 地衣 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | たいせん (competition, great battle, great war, waging war), こけるい, ちい (calamity, natural disaster, position, status). (various references) | |
Korean | 지의. (various references) | |
Manx | scryss ny greg (stone lichen), crottal (husk). (various references) | |
Norwegian | lav (low). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ichenlay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | líquen. (various references) | |
Romanian | lichen. (various references) | |
Russian | лишайник (moss). (various references) | |
Scottish | crotal (nm. g.v. -ail; lichen called cudbear). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | lišaj. (various references) | |
Spanish | liquen. (various references) | |
Swedish | lav (moss). (various references) | |
Thai | ปกคลุมด้วยเห็ดรา. (various references) | |
Turkish | liken (moss), yosun (alga, algae, hydrophyte, moss, seaweed), temriye (barber's itch, tetter). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | лишайник, лишай (herpes, impetigo). (various references) | |
Welsh | cen (film, peel, scales, scurf, skin). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | lichen spp.. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "lichen": lichened, lichenin, lichening, lichenins, lichenological, lichenologies, lichenologist, lichenologists, lichenology, lichenous, lichens. (additional references) | |
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"Lichen" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ichen, Ilhan, Ilyichev, kichen, Lachen, lacken, lechee, Lechet, lechon, lechwe, Leuchand, licen, Lichal, Lichas, liche, lichees, licher, liches, lichien, Lichine, Lichten, licken, lihn, liknen, lilhe, Liscahane, Lisheen, litchen, Liuchow, Llechwen, Lochee, Lochsen, lokshen, Luchenzo, luchian, Luchino, Luchon, lynchen, Pichon. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "lichen" (pronounced lī"kun) |
| 5 | l ī" k u n | liken. |
| 3 | -k u n | falcon, awaken, bacon, beacon, beckon, blacken, bracken, broken, chicken, darken, deacon, drunken, forsaken, gascon, harken, heartbroken, housebroken, interleukin, Macon, misspoken, mistaken, outspoken, overtaken, Pekin, pelican, Pipkin, pumpkin, quicken, reawaken, reckon, republican, retaken, second, shaken, shrunken, sicken, silicon, slacken, spoken, stricken, sunken, taken, thicken, token, unbroken, undertaken, unshaken, unspoken, waken, weaken, woken, zircon. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-e-h-i-l-n" | |
-1 letter: chiel, chile, chine, cline, niche. | |
-2 letters: ceil, chin, cine, elhi, heil, inch, lech, lice, lich, lien, line, nice. | |
-3 letters: cel, chi, hen, hic, hie, hin, ice, ich, lei, lie, lin, nil. | |
-4 letters: eh, el, en, he, hi, in, li, ne. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-e-h-i-l-n" | |
+1 letter: choline, elenchi, helicon, leching, lichens. | |
+2 letters: achenial, belching, cephalin, chenille, children, chinless, chlorine, cholines, clinched, clincher, clinches, elenchic, ethnical, flinched, flincher, flinches, heckling, helicons, inchmeal, leaching, lecithin, leeching, letching, lichened, lichenin, phenolic, phenylic, pinochle, welching. | |
+3 letters: bleaching, blenching, cephalins, chatelain, chelating, chelation, chelonian, chenilles, chillness, chiseling, chlorines, chronicle, clenching, clinchers, cochineal, enchilada, ethylenic, fleeching, flenching, fletching, flinchers, halocline, holocrine, lechering, lecithins, lichening, lichenins, lichenous, lunchtime, lychnises, neolithic, phenolics, pinochles, pleaching, schlieren, schnitzel, selachian, technical, thylacine, touchline, uncliched, unethical, vetchling. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Images: Slideshow | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Images: Digital Art 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
