What does fossil mean?
Definitions for fossil
ˈfɒs əlfos·sil
Here are all the possible meanings and translations of the word fossil.
Princeton's WordNet
dodo, fogy, fogey, fossil(noun)
someone whose style is out of fashion
fossil(adj)
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
fossil(adj)
characteristic of a fossil
GCIDE
Fossil(a.)
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.
Etymology: [L. fossilis, fr. fodere to dig: cf. F. fossile. See Fosse.]
Wiktionary
fossil(Noun)
The mineralized remains of an animal or plant.
fossil(Noun)
Any preserved evidence of ancient life, including shells, imprints, burrows, coprolites, and organically-produced chemicals.
fossil(Noun)
A fossilized term.
fossil(Noun)
Anything extremely old, extinct, or outdated.
Webster Dictionary
Fossil(adj)
dug out of the earth; as, fossil coal; fossil salt
Etymology: [L. fossilis, fr. fodere to dig: cf. F. fossile. See Fosse.]
Fossil(adj)
like or pertaining to fossils; contained in rocks, whether petrified or not; as, fossil plants, shells
Etymology: [L. fossilis, fr. fodere to dig: cf. F. fossile. See Fosse.]
Fossil(noun)
a substance dug from the earth
Etymology: [L. fossilis, fr. fodere to dig: cf. F. fossile. See Fosse.]
Fossil(noun)
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
Etymology: [L. fossilis, fr. fodere to dig: cf. F. fossile. See Fosse.]
Fossil(noun)
a person whose views and opinions are extremely antiquated; one whose sympathies are with a former time rather than with the present
Etymology: [L. fossilis, fr. fodere to dig: cf. F. fossile. See Fosse.]
Freebase
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
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
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.)
British National Corpus
Nouns Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'fossil' in Nouns Frequency: #2390
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of fossil in Chaldean Numerology is: 7
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of fossil in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8
Examples of fossil in a Sentence
Iberdrola Chief Executive Ignacio Galan:
If you don't have these plants you need fossil fuel plants, to reach the zero-emissions target you need systems that emit zero.
It feels like The United States saying the rest of the world,' We've got coal and coal technology ; come buy The United States from us,' they're not here to negotiate a treaty. They're here to sell fossil fuels.
We need to be looking at ... more renewable generation and potentially storage to replace our aging fossil fuel generators, as well as energy efficiency initiatives to better manage demand.
The war on coal is over; the war on fossil fuels is over.
We worry a little bit that the price signal may give disincentive for new energy types to develop, and could reduce investment in new non-fossil energy.
Popularity rank by frequency of use
Translations for fossil
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- вкаменелост, фосил, изкопаемоBulgarian
- fòssilCatalan, Valencian
- fossil, oldtidslevningDanish
- FossilGerman
- fosilioEsperanto
- fósilSpanish
- سنگواره, فسیلPersian
- fossiiliFinnish
- fossileFrench
- iontaiseIrish
- fósilGalician
- fosiloIdo
- steingervingurIcelandic
- fossileItalian
- 化石Japanese
- mātātokaMāori
- фосилMacedonian
- fosilMalay
- fossilNorwegian
- fossielDutch
- fossilNorwegian Nynorsk
- fóssilPortuguese
- fosilăRomanian
- ископаемое, окаменелостьRussian
- fòsīlSerbo-Croatian
- fossilSwedish
- haytoTagalog
- taşıl, fosilTurkish
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"fossil." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2021. Web. 14 Apr. 2021. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/fossil>.