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glacial

UK/ˈɡleɪ.sɪəl/
adjectiveB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,687 of 15,258mostly written

Glacial means made or shaped by moving ice. A glacial valley, glacial deposits, the last glacial period.

The U-shaped valleys of Wales and Norway are glacial, cut far wider than any river would leave. The other sense is speed: at a glacial pace means agonisingly slow, from ice that moves about a metre a day.

NASA / Christy Hansen · Public domain

Definitions of glacial

  1. 1adjectiveglacialMade or shaped by moving ice.B2+

    “The lakes in this region were carved out by glacial action thousands of years ago.”

glacial is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin glacialis comes from glacies, ice. The sense of slowness comes from the pace of real glaciers.

  1. Latin

    glaciālis

  2. French

    glacial

  3. English, today

    glacial

Built from

  • glaciēs · Latin — ice

French glacial, from Latin glaciālis, from glaciēs (“ice”). The sense "slow" refers to the speed of actual glaciers, typically around 1 meter per day.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Nature & Weather

Practise this word

glacial in the wild

  • As a glacier moves, it abrades underlying rock and debris to create glacial landforms, such as cirques, moraines, and fjords.

    Glacier

  • With more than 7,000 known glaciers, Pakistan has more glacial ice than any other country outside the polar regions.

    Glacier

  • The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology.

    Pleistocene

  • Till, or glacial till, is unsorted glacial sediment.

    Till

  • The last glacial period saw alternating episodes of glacier advance and retreat with the Last Glacial Maximum occurring between 26,000 and 20,000 years ago.

    Last Glacial Period

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the glaciēs family

glacierglacial

glacial — used about once every 27,725 pages · #13,687 · point at the bar for the others