fossil
The mineralized remains of an animal or plant.
Other meanings
Any preserved evidence of ancient life, including shells, imprints, burrows, coprolites, and organically-produced chemicals.
Anything extremely old, extinct, or outdated.
A kind of
- remains
Kinds of fossil
- index fossil
Related words
- body fossil
- cast fossil
- chemofossil
- fossilate
- fossil car
- fossil damascus
- fossildom
- fossiled
- fossil fool
- fossil fuel
- fossil gas
- fossilhood
Example sentences
Word history
From Latin "fossilis" (something which has been dug up).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “fossil” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.