ANCIENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ancient mean? 

• ANCIENT (noun)
  The noun ANCIENT has 2 senses:

1. a very old person

2. a person who lived in ancient times

  Familiarity information: ANCIENT used as a noun is rare.

• ANCIENT (adjective)
  The adjective ANCIENT has 2 senses:

1. belonging to times long past especially of the historical period before the fall of the Western Roman Empire

2. very old

  Familiarity information: ANCIENT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ANCIENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A very old person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

ancient; antediluvian

Hypernyms ("ancient" is a kind of...):

golden ager; old person; oldster; senior citizen (an elderly person)

Derivation:

ancient (very old)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who lived in ancient times

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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)

• ANCIENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Belonging to times long past especially of the historical period before the fall of the Western Roman Empire

Context example:

ancient Greece

Similar:

past (earlier than the present time; no longer current)

Derivation:

ancient (a person who lived in ancient times)

ancientness (extreme oldness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Very old

Context example:

an ancient mariner

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)

 Context examples 

Curiosity has been examining successively higher and younger layers of Mount Sharp, starting with the mudstone at the mountain's base, for evidence about changes in the area's ancient environment.

(Mars Panorama from Curiosity Shows Petrified Sand Dunes, NASA)

Its ancient surface is one of the most heavily cratered of all of Saturn's moons.

(Regarding Rhea, NASA)

These umbrellas are remnants of an ancient global field that decayed billions of years ago.

(Auroras on Mars, NASA)

Venus in Pisces is considered her best placement—ancient astrologers called her exalted in that sign—for the wise astrologers knew that Pisces allows her to exert her most loving, endearing qualities.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Ancient climate change and ancient human impacts are important for understanding why and how species became distributed the way we see them today.

(Connecting the prehistoric past to the global future, National Science Foundation)

Scientists are studying the skeleton of an ancient sea monster.

(Sea Monster Swam Oceans 170 Million Years Ago, Voanews)

The Kalahari was once a much wetter place, with ancient Lake Makgadikgadi covering today's Makgadikgadi Pan.

(Sleeping sands of the Kalahari awaken after more than 10,000 years, NSF)

Researchers surmise that ancient farmers migrating there from Bolivia exposed A. duranensis plants to another species they had brought with them—A. ipaensis, considered the other parent of cultivated peanut.

(Peanut Genome Sequenced with Unprecedent Accuracy, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

Moreover, ancient V-perforated buttons, needles, and even pieces of fabric from the clothes were discovered during the excavations.

(Hair was dyed for first time as part of funeral rituals, University of Granada)

When gypsum forms, water molecules are incorporated directly into its crystalline structure, and this water records the different isotopes that were present in the ancient lake water at the time of its formation.

(Scientists measure severity of drought during the Maya collapse, University of Cambridge)