What does "holocene" mean?

Of a geologic epoch within the Quaternary period from about the year 10 000 BC to the present; the age of man.

What is a synonym for "holocene"?

Common synonyms include: anthropocene, holocene epoch, period, recent, recent epoch, time.

How do you pronounce "holocene"?

Pronounced //ˈhɒl.əˌsiːn//.

Holocene

//ˈhɒl.əˌsiːn// adj, name

adj, name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Of a geologic epoch within the Quaternary period from about the year 10 000 BC to the present; the age of man. not-comparable
"Meronym: Anthropocene"

Proper Noun

1
The Holocene epoch.

Synonyms

All synonyms

anthropocene holocene epoch period recent recent epoch time

Example

More examples

"The four-day conference gave those engaged in research on elephants, mammoths, mastodons and related fauna of the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs the opportunity to gather and explore the relevance of their prehistoric research in today's world."

Etymology

From French Holocène, based on holo- (“whole”) + Ancient Greek καινός (kainós, “fresh, new”). Coined to replace the earlier (1833) label Recent, formally submitted in 1867 and officially endorsed in 1969. The concept is that this epoch is entirely (wholly) new. By surface analysis, holo- + -cene.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.