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living fossil

liv·ing fos·sil
L l

Transcription

    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • UK Pronunciation
    • UK IPA
    • [liv-ing fos-uh l]
    • /ˈlɪv ɪŋ ˈfɒs əl/
    • /ˈlɪvɪŋ ˈfɒs.əl/
    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [liv-ing fos-uh l]
    • /ˈlɪv ɪŋ ˈfɒs əl/

Definitions of living fossil words

  • noun living fossil an organism that is a living example of an otherwise extinct group and that has remained virtually unchanged in structure and function over a long period of time, as the coelacanth and the horseshoe crab. 1
  • noun living fossil an animal or plant, such as the coelacanth and ginkgo, belonging to a group most of whose members are extinct 0
  • noun living fossil Any species discovered first as a fossil and believed extinct, but which is later found living; an organism that has remained unchanged over geological periods. 0
  • noun living fossil Any living species which very closely resembles fossil relatives in most anatomical details. 0
See all 4 definitions of living fossil

Information block about the term

Origin of living fossil

First appearance:

before 1920
One of the 12% newest English words
First recorded in 1920-25

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Living fossil

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Full grammatical hierarchy of Living fossil

living fossil popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 34% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.
According to our data about 61% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

living fossil usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

See also

Matching words

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