glacial
Americanadjective
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of or relating to glaciers or ice sheets.
-
resulting from or associated with the action of ice or glaciers.
glacial terrain.
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characterized by the presence of ice in extensive masses or glaciers.
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bitterly cold; icy.
a glacial winter wind.
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happening or moving extremely slowly.
The work proceeded at a glacial pace.
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icily unsympathetic or immovable.
a glacial stare; glacial indifference.
- Synonyms:
- hostile, unfriendly, forbidding
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Chemistry. of, relating to, or tending to develop into icelike crystals.
glacial phosphoric acid.
adjective
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characterized by the presence of masses of ice
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relating to, caused by, or deposited by a glacier
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extremely cold; icy
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cold or hostile in manner
a glacial look
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(of a chemical compound) of or tending to form crystals that resemble ice
glacial acetic acid
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very slow in progress
a glacial pace
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Relating to or derived from a glacier.
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Characterized or dominated by the existence of glaciers, as the Pleistocene Epoch.
Other Word Forms
- glacially adverb
- nonglacial adjective
- nonglacially adverb
- unglacial adjective
- unglacially adverb
Etymology
Origin of glacial
1650–60; < Latin glaciālis icy, equivalent to glaci ( ēs ) ice + -ālis -al 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But "the largest AI companies deploy capabilities at a pace that makes 18-month legislative cycles look glacial," Patience said.
From Barron's
As a result, employment has been growing at a glacial pace, with the economy adding the fewest jobs last year, outside of a recession, since 2003.
This increased carbon uptake helped strengthen global cooling at the onset of glacial periods.
From Science Daily
She’s the most animated during the fittings for her inauguration outfits, and even then, she talks with a hard, glacial cadence.
From Salon
A bottle of Ice Age glacial water from the Czech mountains contains dazzling specks of 24‑carat gold.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
