ice age

noun

1
: a time of widespread glaciation
2
capitalized I&A : the Pleistocene glacial epoch

Examples of ice age in a Sentence

changes that occurred during the last ice age
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Even in the ice age, when the cool, dry climate shrank jungles across Africa, Anyama remained a tropical refuge. Carl Zimmer, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2025 The sample came from a part of the seafloor dating to the Late Pleistocene era, meaning the fossil was more than 11,700 years old, and could have been living during the last planetary ice age. Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 3 Jan. 2025 This study is the first to reconstruct the structure, or architecture, of a genome from an extinct species that lived during the last ice age, said Peter Heintzman, a paleogeneticist at Stockholm University in Sweden. Jacopo Prisco, CNN, 11 July 2024 Although studying climate wasn’t the project’s primary goal, researchers took the opportunity to probe the mysterious spurts of abrupt warming that punctuated the ice ages. Bypaul Voosen, science.org, 6 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for ice age

Word History

First Known Use

1855, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of ice age was in 1855

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Cite this Entry

“Ice age.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ice%20age. Accessed 9 Mar. 2025.

Kids Definition

ice age

noun
1
: a time of widespread glaciation
2
capitalized I&A : the most recent such period in the earth's past

More from Merriam-Webster on ice age

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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