ice age

noun

any period of time during which glaciers covered a large part of the earth's surface

-

the most recent ice age was during the Pleistocene

• Syn: ↑glacial period, ↑glacial epoch

• Hypernyms: ↑period, ↑geological period

• Part Holonyms: ↑prehistory, ↑prehistoric culture

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noun

1. : a time of widespread glaciation

2. usually capitalized I&A : the Pleistocene glacial epoch

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Geol.

(often caps.) the glacial epoch, esp. the Pleistocene Epoch.

[1870-75]

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ice age noun (geology)

Any time when a great part of the earth's surface has been covered with ice, esp (often with caps) that in the Pleistocene epoch

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Main Entry: ↑ice

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Ice Age UK US noun [countable] [singular Ice Age plural Ice Ages]

a period of time thousands of years ago when large areas of the Earth were covered in ice http://www.macmillandictionary.com/med2cd/weblinks/ice-age.htm

Thesaurus: time before history was written down_hyponym

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ice age,

1. any of the times when the earth was covered with glaciers, as in the late pre-Cambrian (about 700 million years ago), in the early Cambrian (about 600 million years ago), and in the Permian (about 230 million years ago); glacial epoch: »

In ice age times apparently there were also land bridges across the mid-Mediterranean (Scientific American).

2. Usually, Ice Age. the most recent such time, when most of the Northern Hemisphere was covered with glaciers; Pleistocene: »

The Hungarian site of Vértesszöllös, which dates from the last Ice Age (200,000 _B.C.), has yielded many stone tools (Henri V. Vallois).

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n. a glacial episode during a past geological period. See glacial period

■ (the Ice Age) the series of glacial episodes during the Pleistocene period

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↑ice age

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ˈice age [ice age ice ages] (often the Ice Age) noun

one of the long periods of time, thousands of years ago, when much of the earth's surface was covered in ice