ancient
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Having lasted from a remote period.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
aynchuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈeɪntʃənt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Having lasted from a remote period; having been of long duration; of great age, very old.
Existent or occurring in time long past, usually in remote ages; belonging to or associated with antiquity; old, as opposed to modern.
history
Relating to antiquity as a primarily European historical period; the time before the Middle Ages.
noun
A person who is very old.
A person who lived in ancient times
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
More ways to use ancient
- “An ancient city an ancient forest.”adjective
- “An ancient author an ancient empire.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
People who lived in times long past (especially during the historical period before the fall of the Roman Empire in western Europe).
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Small slow-growing pine of western United States similar to the bristlecone pine.
The Greek language prior to the Roman Empire.
A history of the ancient world.
Impressive monuments created in the ancient world that were regarded with awe.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: having lasted from a remote period
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.