GEOLOGIC TIME

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does geologic time mean? 

• GEOLOGIC TIME (noun)
  The noun GEOLOGIC TIME has 1 sense:

1. the time of the physical formation and development of the earth (especially prior to human history)

  Familiarity information: GEOLOGIC TIME used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GEOLOGIC TIME (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The time of the physical formation and development of the earth (especially prior to human history)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

geologic time; geological time

Hypernyms ("geologic time" is a kind of...):

time (the continuum of experience in which events pass from the future through the present to the past)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "geologic time"):

aeon; eon (the longest division of geological time)

geological period; period (a unit of geological time during which a system of rocks formed)

era; geological era (a major division of geological time; an era is usually divided into two or more periods)

epoch (a unit of geological time that is a subdivision of a period and is itself divided into ages)

 Context examples 

On geologic time scales (thousands to millions of years), variations in Earth's orbit are the pacemakers of the ice ages.

(Deep-sea sediments lead to new understanding of solar system, National Science Foundation)

Geologic time is broken down into eons, eras, periods and epochs.

(Geologic time scale, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

The topic of the isotopic composition of seawater over geologic time has been much discussed, and this study has added critical data to this debate and to that of the emergence of plate tectonics as we know it today, said Enriqueta Barrera, a program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.

(Scientists determine early Earth was a ‘water world’ by studying exposed ocean crust, National Science Foundation)