| / English Dictionary |
ANCIENT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person who lived in ancient times
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("ancient" is a kind of...):
individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)
Derivation:
ancient (belonging to times long past especially of the historical period before the fall of the Western Roman Empire)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A very old person
Synonyms:
ancient; antediluvian
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("ancient" is a kind of...):
golden ager; old person; oldster; senior citizen (an elderly person)
Derivation:
ancient (very old)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Very old
Example:
an ancient mariner
Classified under:
Similar:
old ((used especially of persons) having lived for a relatively long time or attained a specific age)
Derivation:
ancient (a very old person)
ancientness (extreme oldness)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Belonging to times long past especially of the historical period before the fall of the Western Roman Empire
Example:
ancient Greece
Classified under:
Similar:
past (earlier than the present time; no longer current)
Derivation:
ancient (a person who lived in ancient times)
ancientness (extreme oldness)
Context examples:
I spent five days in conversing with many others of the ancient learned.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
They are descended, on the maternal side, from the same noble line; and, on the father's, from respectable, honourable, and ancient—though untitled—families.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Egypt authorities announced Saturday that archaeologists had discovered two small ancient tombs in Luxor, a southern city.
(Discovery of Two Tombs Dating Back 3,500 Years Announced in Egypt, VOA)
To the right of this stood, and stands to this day, an ancient barrow, or burying mound, covered deeply in a bristle of heather and bracken.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The nearest of these was the hamlet of Tredannick Wollas, where the cottages of a couple of hundred inhabitants clustered round an ancient, moss-grown church.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The volume of Plutarch’s Lives which I possessed contained the histories of the first founders of the ancient republics.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
The background is the most ancient light in the history of the cosmos, dating back to 380,000 years after the big bang.
(First Stars Formed Later Than We Thought, NASA)
Dangers to ancient Antarctic ice portend a future of rapidly rising seas, but a new study may relieve one nagging fear.
(Reframing the dangers Antarctica's meltwater ponds pose to ice shelves and sea level, National Science Foundation)
These discoveries from the East African Rift System, the scientists say, provide a glimpse into the ancient ecosystems of Africa, and provide the impetus for future work elsewhere on the continent.
(New dinosaur with heart-shaped tail offers clues to evolution of Africa's ecosystems, National Science Foundation)
Scientists used ancient DNA analyses and carbon-14 dating to demonstrate the past existence of a unique population of Icelandic walrus that went extinct shortly after Norse settlement some 1,100 years ago.
(Extinction of Icelandic walrus coincides with Norse settlement, National Science Foundation)
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