ice age

[ ahys eyj ]

noun

, Geology.

1. a geologic period during which ice thickly covers vast masses of land:

   astronomical phenomena related to the widespread glaciation of ice ages.

2. Ice Age, the most recent of the earth’s many ice ages, occurring during the Pleistocene Epoch:

   Our familiar continents were shaped quite differently before the Ice Age.

ice age

noun

1. another name for glacial period

ice age

1. Any of several cold periods during which glaciers covered much of the Earth.
2. Ice Age. The most recent glacial period, which occurred during the Pleistocene Epoch and ended about 10,000 years ago. During the Pleistocene Ice Age, great sheets of ice up to two miles thick covered most of Greenland, Canada, and the northern United States as well as northern Europe and Russia.

Word History and Origins

Origin of ice age¹

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

None of her last five movies (with the exception of an Ice Age sequel she voiced) has grossed more than $50 million.

From The Daily Beast

Take the case of the American bison: The ice-age bison evolved into the Plains buffalo, Bison bison, perhaps 10,000 years ago.

From The Daily Beast

The IPCC tells us that, on present trends, the earth will warm up faster than at any time since the last ice age.

From The Daily Beast

Even the audience for Ice Age now seems ominous, with all the kids running up and down the aisles.

From The Daily Beast

And there were endless, additional chapters of Step Up, Ice Age, Madagascar, Men in Black—what am I forgetting?

From The Daily Beast

Armed with it he challenges Nature and goes through the Ice Age, which sets the boundary between the white man and the savage.

From Project Gutenberg

This volcanic activity appears to have ended before the last ice age.

From Project Gutenberg

During the ice age many of these deposits were eroded and others were piled with boulders.

From Project Gutenberg

It is plain that steam and hot water had been at work long before the last ice age came.

From Project Gutenberg

The Big-Tree groves, he says, are growing in the soil-areas off which the ice first melted at the close of the ice age.

From Project Gutenberg