interglacial

American  

[in-ter-gley-shuhl] / ˌɪn tərˈgleɪ ʃəl /

adjective

Geology.

1. occurring or formed between times of glacial action.

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interglacial British  

/ ˌɪntəˈɡleɪsɪəl, -ʃəl /

adjective

1. occurring or formed between periods of glacial action

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noun

1. a period of comparatively warm climate between two glaciations, esp of the Pleistocene epoch

interglacial Scientific  

/ ĭn′tər-glā′shəl /

1. Occurring between glacial epochs.

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1. A comparatively short period of warmth during an overall period of glaciation. Interglacials are characterized both by the melting of ice and by a change in vegetation.

Etymology

Origin of interglacial

First recorded in 1865–70; inter- + glacial

Example Sentences

Each time the ice sheet retreated during earlier interglacial periods, increased iceberg activity carried large amounts of these weathered minerals into the nearby South Pacific.

From Science Daily • Feb. 4, 2026

Earth has cycled through glacial and interglacial periods lasting hundreds of thousands of years.

From BBC • Oct. 19, 2025

The objects date from the end of a warm interglacial period 300,000 years ago, about when early Neanderthals were supplanting Homo heidelbergensis, their immediate predecessors in Europe.

From New York Times • May 4, 2024

Lau used her models to predict how different ice sheet conditions during the last interglacial would have affected the octopuses’ genomes.

From Science Magazine • Dec. 20, 2023

Orgoreyn and the Archipelago has been increasing during the last ten or twenty millennia, and presages the end of the Ice, or at least a recession of it and an interglacial period.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin