- belonging to a period of history that is thousands of years in the past
- Archaeologists are excavating the ruined temples of this ancient civilization.
- ancient Greece/Egypt/Rome
- the ancient city of Petra
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- very old; having existed for a very long time
- an ancient oak tree
- ancient traditions/culture
- the ancient Japanese art of origami
- (humorous) He's ancient—he must be at least fifty!
Extra ExamplesTopics Buildingsa2- The man looked positively ancient.
- The area is still covered by huge ancient forests.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- look
- extremely
- fairly
- very
- …
- the ancientsnoun [plural] the people who lived in ancient times, especially the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French ancien, based on Latin ante ‘before’.
Check pronunciation:
ancient