Epigean

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any organism that lives on or near the surface of the land.

    "We also studied the female internal system for a species in the subgenus Aphaenops (Cerbaphaenops), and two species belonging to two other genera, one endogean (Geotrechus) and one epigean (Trechus)."

Adjective
  1. 1
    That lives on or near the surface of the land. not-comparable

    "For other Leptodirini, the contraction of the life cycle is less radical, being intermediate between this extreme and a epigean life cycle."

Example

More examples

"For other Leptodirini, the contraction of the life cycle is less radical, being intermediate between this extreme and a epigean life cycle."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἐπίγειος (epígeios, “earthly”), from ἐπί (epí, “on top of”) + γαῖα (gaîa, “earth”).

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