What does "lithology" mean?

The study of rocks, with particular emphasis on their description and classification.

What is a synonym for "lithology"?

Common synonyms include: petrology, petrology.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The study of rocks, with particular emphasis on their description and classification. uncountable
2
the branch of geology that studies rocks: their origin and formation and mineral composition and classification wordnet
3
The general composition of a rock or rock sequence. countable
"The ‘monomict’ meteorites are samples of a single lithology while the polymict meteorites are those containing two or more lithologies."

"The ‘monomict’ meteorites are samples of a single lithology while the polymict meteorites are those containing two or more lithologies."

From litho- + -ology.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.