What does "ordovician" mean?

Of a geologic period within the Paleozoic era; comprises lower, middle and upper epochs from about 488 to 443 million years ago.

What is a synonym for "ordovician"?

Common synonyms include: ordovician period.

Ordovician

adj, name

adj, name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Of a geologic period within the Paleozoic era; comprises lower, middle and upper epochs from about 488 to 443 million years ago.
"Against the dark Ordovician gabbro, the black volcanic base, Rhynie is a streak of technicolour."

Proper Noun

1
The Ordovician period.

Synonyms

All synonyms

ordovician period

Example

More examples

"Against the dark Ordovician gabbro, the black volcanic base, Rhynie is a streak of technicolour."

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃erg-der.? Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der.? Proto-Celtic *ordosder. Proto-Indo-European *weyk-der. Proto-Celtic *wiketider. Latin Ordovīcēslbor. English Ordovices Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Italic *-nos Latin -nus Latin -ānus Latin -iānusbor. English -ian English Ordovician From Ordovices + -ian. Coined by English geologist Charles Lapworth in 1879 after the Celtic tribe of the Ordovices.

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