noun
any period of time during which glaciers covered a large part of the earth's surface
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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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noun1. : a time of widespread glaciation
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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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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 downhyponym
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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* * *
one of the long periods of time, thousands of years ago, when much of the earth's surface was covered in ice
Useful english dictionary. 2012.