HOLOCENE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Holocene mean? 

• HOLOCENE (noun)
  The noun HOLOCENE has 1 sense:

1. approximately the last 10,000 years

  Familiarity information: HOLOCENE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HOLOCENE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Approximately the last 10,000 years

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

Holocene; Holocene epoch; Recent; Recent epoch

Instance hypernyms:

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

Holonyms ("Holocene" is a part of...):

Age of Man; Quaternary; Quaternary period (last 2 million years)

 Context examples 

Temperatures reached a maximum during the mid-Holocene some 7,000 to 5,000 years ago and decreased afterward toward the Little Ice Age, 150 years ago.

(Ice cave in Transylvania yields window into region's past, NSF)

Ice cores drilled from a glacier in a cave in Transylvania offer new evidence of how Europe's winter weather and climate patterns fluctuated during the last 10,000 years, known as the Holocene period.

(Ice cave in Transylvania yields window into region's past, NSF)

A major shift in atmospheric dynamics occurred during the mid-Holocene, when winter storm tracks switched and produced wetter and colder conditions in northwestern Europe, and the expansion of a Mediterranean-type climate toward southeastern Europe.

(Ice cave in Transylvania yields window into region's past, NSF)