Phrase guide

radiocarbon dating

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

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1

noun

Meaning 1

A method of estimating the age of an artifact or biological vestige based on the relative amounts of the different isotopes of carbon present in a sample.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

Topics: archaeology, biology, history, human-sciences, natural-sciences, paleontology, physical-sciences, physics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: carbon dating

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a chemical analysis used to determine the age of organic materials based on their content of the radioisotope carbon-14; believed to be reliable up to 40,000 years

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: carbon dating, carbon-14 dating

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: dating, geological dating

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

30 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: radiokoolstofdatering — radiocarbon dating
  • Arabic: تأريخ بالكربون المشع — radiocarbon dating
  • Armenian: ռադիոածխածնային թվագրում (ṙadioacxacnayin tʻvagrum) — radiocarbon dating
  • Bulgarian: радиовъглеродно датиране (radiovǎglerodno datirane) — radiocarbon dating
  • Catalan: datació per radiocarboni — radiocarbon dating
  • Esperanto: radiokarbona datado — radiocarbon dating
  • Estonian: radiosüsinikumeetod — radiocarbon dating
  • Finnish: radiohiiliajoitus — radiocarbon dating
  • Georgian: რადიონახშირბადული დათარიღება (radionaxširbaduli datariɣeba) — radiocarbon dating
  • German: Radiokarbonmethode — radiocarbon dating
  • Greek: ραδιοχρονολόγηση (radiochronológisi) — radiocarbon dating
  • Hebrew: תיארוך רדיו־פחמן (ti'arúkh radyo-pakhmán) — radiocarbon dating
  • Hungarian: radiokarbonos kormeghatározás — radiocarbon dating
  • Indonesian: penanggalan radiokarbon — radiocarbon dating
  • Irish: dátú radacarbóin — radiocarbon dating
  • Macedonian: радиојаглеродно датирање (radiojaglerodno datiranje) — radiocarbon dating
  • Māori: inewā horowaro — radiocarbon dating
  • Norman: dat'tie au tchèrbon — radiocarbon dating
  • Polish: datowanie radiowęglowe — radiocarbon dating
  • Portuguese: datação por radiocarbono — radiocarbon dating
  • Romanian: datare cu radiocarbon — radiocarbon dating
  • Russian: радиоуглеродное датирование (radiouglerodnoje datirovanije) — radiocarbon dating
  • Spanish: datación por radiocarbono — radiocarbon dating
  • Swedish: kol-14-datering — radiocarbon dating
  • Swedish: C14-datering — radiocarbon dating
  • Swedish: radiokoldatering — radiocarbon dating
  • Tibetan: འགྱེད་འཕྲོའི་ཁར་སྦོན་ལོ་རྩིས ('gyed 'phro'i khar sbon lo rtsis) — radiocarbon dating
  • Tibetan: འགྱེད་འཕྲོའི་ནག་རྫས་ལོ་རྩིས ('gyed 'phro'i nag rdzas lo rtsis) — radiocarbon dating
  • Ukrainian: радіовуглеце́ве датува́ння (radiovuhlecéve datuvánnja) — radiocarbon dating
  • Welsh: dyddio radiocarbon — radiocarbon dating