noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A rock carving, especially one made in prehistoric times.

   "The petroglyphs of Central Asia form a long sequence from the Neolithic onwards."

2. 2
   a carving or line drawing on rock (especially one made by prehistoric people) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

antiqueantiquityarchaismartifacteolithfossil

Example

More examples

"The petroglyphs of Central Asia form a long sequence from the Neolithic onwards."

Etymology

From French pétroglyphe, from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, “rock”) + γλυφή (gluphḗ, “carved work”). By surface analysis, petro- + glyph.

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