What does "interglacial" mean?
The relatively warm period between glacial periods.
Interglacial
adj, noun
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: The relatively warm period between glacial periods.
- Grammar: interglacial is listed as adj, noun.
- Useful contrasts: anglian, glaciation.
- Usage evidence: Carrie Morrill of the National Climatic Data Center explains, "You'd have to go back to the last interglacial about 125,000 years ago to find temperatures significantly higher than temperatures of today."
How to use "interglacial"
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- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
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Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "interglacial" in a final draft.
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Before you rely on this definition
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Compare nearby meanings
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Definition decision workflow
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Definitions
Noun
- 1 The relatively warm period between glacial periods.
"The climatic recession which produced Britain's last glaciers came rapidly to an end about 10,000 bp, as temperatures rose during the end of the protocratic phase of the present interglacial."
Adjective
- 1 Occurring between glaciations (colloquially known as ice ages). not-comparable
"Palaeoenvironmental evidence from northwest Europe indicates that the oligocratic phase of the interglacial cycle (Fig. 3.1) had begun by ca. 5K years BP."
Antonyms
Example
"Carrie Morrill of the National Climatic Data Center explains, "You'd have to go back to the last interglacial about 125,000 years ago to find temperatures significantly higher than temperatures of today.""
Common questions
How do you use "interglacial" in a sentence?
Carrie Morrill of the National Climatic Data Center explains, "You'd have to go back to the last interglacial about 125,000 years ago to find temperatures significantly higher than temperatures of today."
Etymology
From inter- + glacial.