Fossil

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -É’sÉ™l

Origin

From French fossile, from Latin fossilis ("something which has been dug up"), from fodio ("I dig up").

Full definition of fossil

Noun

1. The mineralized remains of an animal or plant.
2. (paleontology) Any preserved evidence of ancient life, including shells, imprints, burrows, coprolites, and organically-produced chemicals.
• 2012, John T. Jost, Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?, He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.
3. (linguistics) A fossilized term.
4. (figuratively) Anything extremely old, extinct, or outdated.

Derived terms

• fossil fuel
• fossiliferous
• fossilisation, fossilization
• fossilise, fossilize
• ichnofossil
• index fossil
• living fossil
• mesofossil
• microfossil
• trace fossil