Standard Lemma guide

petrology

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /pɪˈtɹɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/
  • US: /pəˈtɹɑl.ə.d͡ʒi/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P AH0 T R AA1 L AH0 JH IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The study of the origin, composition and structure of rock.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

Topics: geography, geology, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

the branch of geology that studies rocks: their origin and formation and mineral composition and classification

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: lithology

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: morphology, geomorphology

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Pre-Greekder.? Ancient Greek πέτρᾱ (pétrā)bor. Latin petrader. English petro- Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos) Proto-Indo-European *-h2 Proto-Indo-European *-éh2 Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh2 Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek -λογῐ́ᾱ (-logĭ́ā)bor. Latin -logialbor. French -logiebor. English -logy English petrology From petro- + -logy.

Across languages

Translations

25 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: petrologjí — the study of rock
  • Albanian: petrologjía — the study of rock
  • Bashkir: петрология (petrologiya) — the study of rock
  • Catalan: petrologia — the study of rock
  • Chinese Mandarin: 岩石學 /岩石学 (yánshíxué) — the study of rock
  • Danish: petrologi — the study of rock
  • Dutch: steenkunde — the study of rock
  • Finnish: petrologia — the study of rock
  • French: pétrologie — the study of rock
  • Galician: petroloxía — the study of rock
  • German: Petrologie — the study of rock
  • German: Gesteinskunde — the study of rock
  • Italian: petrologia — the study of rock
  • Japanese: 岩石学 (gansekigaku) — the study of rock
  • Kazakh: петрология (petrologiä) — the study of rock
  • Kyrgyz: петрология (petrologiya) — the study of rock
  • Malayalam: ശിലാവിജ്ഞാനം (śilāvijñānaṁ) — the study of rock
  • Norwegian: petrologi — the study of rock
  • Portuguese: petrologia — the study of rock
  • Romanian: petrologie — the study of rock
  • Spanish: petrología — the study of rock
  • Swahili: petrolojia — the study of rock
  • Tagalog: dalubbatuhan — the study of rock
  • Tamil: பாறையியல் (pāṟaiyiyal) — the study of rock
  • Vietnamese: thạch luận — the study of rock