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

The land bridge remained until about 8,000 years ago, after the end of the last ice age, when rising sea levels eventually cut Tasmania off from the Australian mainland.

From Science Daily

He and a colleague hypothesized the tree might have first sprouted during the end of the last ice age, when the climate was much cooler.

From Los Angeles Times

The Garvellach islands off the west coast of Scotland are the best record of Earth entering its biggest ever ice age around 720 million years ago, researchers have discovered.

From BBC

This endangered California species has survived ice ages, livestock disease and climate change.

From Los Angeles Times

And this flexibility is probably what “kept them going when they were dealing with ice ages, all kinds of environmental changes to their feeding grounds over the last several thousand years.”

From Los Angeles Times