Definitions for fossil
ˈfɒs əlfos·sil

Princeton's WordNet(3.11 / 9 votes)Rate this definition:

1. dodo, fogy, fogey, fossilnoun

   someone whose style is out of fashion

2. fossiladjective

   the remains (or an impression) of a plant or animal that existed in a past geological age and that has been excavated from the soil

3. fossiladjective

   characteristic of a fossil

GCIDE(3.00 / 6 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Fossiladjective

   preserved from a previous geological age; as, fossil water from deep wells; -- usually implying that the object so described has had its substance modified by long residence in the ground, but also used (as with fossil water) in cases where chemical composition is not altered.

Wiktionary(5.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. fossilnoun

   The mineralized remains of an animal or plant.

2. fossilnoun

   Any preserved evidence of ancient life, including shells, imprints, burrows, coprolites, and organically-produced chemicals.

3. fossilnoun

   A fossilized term.

4. fossilnoun

   Anything extremely old, extinct, or outdated.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. FOSSILadjective

   That which is dug out of the earth.

   Etymology: fossilis, Latin; fossile, French.

   The fossil shells are many of them of the same kinds with those that now appear upon the neighbouring shores; and the rest such as may be presumed to be at the bottom of the adjacent seas. John Woodward, Natural History.

   Fossil or rock salt, and sal gemm, differ not in nature from each other; nor from the common salt of salt springs, or that of the sea, when pure. John Woodward, Natural History.

   It is of a middle nature, between fossil and animal, being produced from animal excrements, intermixed with vegetable salts. John Arbuthnot, on Aliments.

2. Fossilnoun

   In this globe are many other bodies, which, because we discover them by digging into the bowels of the earth, are called by one common name fossils; under which are comprehended metals and minerals.

   John Locke.

   Many kinds of fossils are very oddly and elegantly shaped. Richard Bentley, Sermons.

   By the word fossil, used as a denomination of one of three general divisions of natural productions, we understand bodies formed usually within the earth, sometimes on its surface, and sometimes in waters; of a plain and simple structure, in which there is no visible difference of parts, no distinction of vessels and their contents, but every portion of which is similar to and perfect as the whole. John Hill, Mat. Med.

Wikipedia(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Fossil

   A fossil (from Classical Latin fossilis, lit. 'obtained by digging') is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the fossil record. Paleontology is the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are usually considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years old to 4.1 billion years old. The observation in the 19th century that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led to the recognition of a geological timescale and the relative ages of different fossils. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed scientists to quantitatively measure the absolute ages of rocks and the fossils they host. There are many processes that lead to fossilization, including permineralization, casts and molds, authigenic mineralization, replacement and recrystallization, adpression, carbonization, and bioimmuration. Fossils vary in size from one-micrometre (1 µm) bacteria to dinosaurs and trees, many meters long and weighing many tons. A fossil normally preserves only a portion of the deceased organism, usually that portion that was partially mineralized during life, such as the bones and teeth of vertebrates, or the chitinous or calcareous exoskeletons of invertebrates. Fossils may also consist of the marks left behind by the organism while it was alive, such as animal tracks or feces (coprolites). These types of fossil are called trace fossils or ichnofossils, as opposed to body fossils. Some fossils are biochemical and are called chemofossils or biosignatures.

Webster Dictionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Fossiladjective

   dug out of the earth; as, fossil coal; fossil salt

2. Fossiladjective

   like or pertaining to fossils; contained in rocks, whether petrified or not; as, fossil plants, shells

3. Fossilnoun

   a substance dug from the earth

4. Fossilnoun

   the remains of an animal or plant found in stratified rocks. Most fossils belong to extinct species, but many of the later ones belong to species still living

5. Fossilnoun

   a person whose views and opinions are extremely antiquated; one whose sympathies are with a former time rather than with the present

6. Etymology: [L. fossilis, fr. fodere to dig: cf. F. fossile. See Fosse.]

Freebase(3.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Fossil

   Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous rock formations and sedimentary layers is known as the fossil record. The study of fossils across geological time, how they were formed, and the evolutionary relationships between taxa are some of the most important functions of the science of paleontology. Such a preserved specimen is called a "fossil" if it is older than some minimum age, most often the arbitrary date of 10,000 years. Hence, fossils range in age from the youngest at the start of the Holocene Epoch to the oldest from the Archaean Eon, up to 3.4 billion years old. The observation that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led early geologists to recognize a geological timescale in the 19th century. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed geologists to determine the numerical or "absolute" age of the various strata and thereby the included fossils.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Fossil

   fos′il, n. the petrified remains of an animal or vegetable found embedded in the strata of the earth's crust: anything antiquated.—adj. dug out of the earth: in the condition of a fossil: antiquated.—adj. Fossilif′erous, bearing or containing fossils.—n. Fossilificā′tion, the act of becoming fossil.—vs.t. Fossil′ify, Foss′ilīse, to convert into a fossil.—v.i. to be changed into a stony or fossil state.—ns. Fossilisā′tion, a changing into a fossil; Foss′ilism, the science of fossils; Foss′ilist, one skilled in fossils; Fossilol′ogy, Fossil′ogy, paleontology. [Fr. fossile—L. fossilis—fodĕre, to dig.]

The New Hacker's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. fossil

   1. In software, a misfeature that becomes understandable only in historical context, as a remnant of times past retained so as not to break compatibility. Example: the retention of octal as default base for string escapes in C, in spite of the better match of hexadecimal to ASCII and modern byte-addressable architectures. See dusty deck. 2. More restrictively, a feature with past but no present utility. Example: the force-all-caps (LCASE) bits in the V7 and BSD Unix tty driver, designed for use with monocase terminals. (In a perversion of the usual backward-compatibility goal, this functionality has actually been expanded and renamed in some later USG Unix releases as the IUCLC and OLCUC bits.)

Matched Categories

1. • Oldster

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'fossil' in Nouns Frequency: #2390

How to pronounce fossil?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say fossil in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of fossil in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of fossil in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of fossil in a Sentence

1. Victor Beccari:

   The Federal Police of Brazil was investigating a fossil trade operation and recovered, in 2013, over 3.000 specimens, fossils in Brazil are protected by law, as they are part of the geological heritage of the country. Therefore, collecting fossils requires permission, and the trade and private collections of fossils are illegal in Brazil.

2. Scott Farber:

   We can no longer afford to be burning fossil fuels or corn ethanol when there are far more environmentally transformational alternatives that address the climate crisis.

3. Mark Maslin:

   The Glasgow Climate Pact agreed at COP26 in 2021 by all countries, including the UAE, calls for a cut of 45% in carbon emissions by 2030, this can only be achieved if there is no new investment in fossil fuels and the use of all fossil fuels is phased out as soon as possible.

4. Carolyn Maloney:

   As I made clear in our October 2021 Committee hearing, we've only begun our investigation into the fossil fuel industry's role in causing the climate crisis and spreading disinformation on global warming.

5. Min Wang:

   Some people were not convinced by Yiqi. Soft tissue is not easily preserved in fossil record.

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