Precambrian

//priːˈkam.bɹɪ.ən// adj, name, slang

adj, name, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Relating to the time and geology dated before the Phanerozoic informal, not-comparable

    "When you look at a Precambrian trilobite in the lobby of a New York bank, it is difficult to speculate about its primeval environment."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The Precambrian supereon; spanning from the formation of the Earth around 4.6 billion years ago to the emergence of hard-shelled creatures 541 million years ago.

Synonyms

All synonyms
cryptozoiccryptozoicperiodphanerozoicprecambrian aeonprecambrian eon

Example

More examples

"When you look at a Precambrian trilobite in the lobby of a New York bank, it is difficult to speculate about its primeval environment."

Etymology

From pre- + Cambrian.

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