Little Ice Age
Americannoun
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The period from about 1400 to 1900, characterized by expansion of mountain glaciers and cooling of global temperatures, especially in the Alps, Scandinavia, Iceland, and Alaska. The Little Ice Age followed the Medieval Warm Period.
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See also Maunder minimum
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.
The weather improved as the Little Ice Age ended, and techne improved medicine, midwifery and sanitation.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 13, 2026
In the cold snaps of the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries - part of the Little Ice Age - glaciers regularly advanced.
From BBC • Oct. 4, 2025
The authors suggest that as the effects of the Little Ice Age faded, manatees began extending their range northward to Florida.
From Science Daily • Nov. 20, 2024
Willis noted that these two major flood events from ancient times occurred during a period of global cooling known as the Little Ice Age, which spanned roughly the the 14th to 19th centuries.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 2, 2024
Similarly, the Little Ice Age of A.D. 1300-1500 contributed to the extinction of the Greenland Norse, but no historian, and probably not even a modern climatologist, could have predicted the Little Ice Age.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
