DictionaryAI

ancient

AYN-shuhnt/ˈeɪn.ʃənt/

Noun pluralancients

9 meanings of ancient

Practice

  1. 1
    distant pastadjective
    Belonging to or existing in the distant past, especially the period of history before the Middle Ages.

    Archaeologists uncovered an ancient city buried beneath the desert sand.

    These ruins date back to an ancient civilization that vanished thousands of years ago.

    UsageUsually used before a noun, especially with a place or period: ancient Rome, ancient Greece, ancient history.

    Oppositemodern, recent, contemporary

    Note

    Here the age lies in the past rather than in the thing. Ancient nomads and ancient smelting are long gone, while the "very old" sense describes what has survived, like an ancient forest. An ancient city can go either way, a standing city of great age or one belonging to antiquity, so the context has to decide.

  2. 2
    adjective
    Having lasted from a remote period; of great age; very old.

    The ancient oak in the churchyard has stood for over five hundred years.

    Her family lived in an ancient farmhouse that predated the village itself.

    Similarold, aged, venerable, age-old

    Oppositenew, young

    Note

    Comparison takes either shape, more ancient or ancienter, and the short form is still at work in the eighteenth century, when Joakim Philander writes of "the Nobleman of the ancienter Family."

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Ancienter is a comparative equivalent to more ancient. en.wiktionary.org
    • The phrase the Nobleman of the ancienter Family appears in the work attributed to Joakim Philander. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 3
    nouncountable
    Someone who lived in times long past, especially in the early periods of history.

    The ancients had no telescopes, yet they tracked the planets across the night sky with remarkable care.

    To an ancient, a solar eclipse may well have seemed a terrifying sign that the gods were angry.

    UsageMostly plural with the: the ancients.

    Note

    William Irwin Thompson plays the noun against the adjective in 1981: "what is ancient for us was in its own time a reworking of what was ancient for the ancients." The line is a reminder that antiquity always had an antiquity of its own.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of ancient apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–6

Latin ante ("before") plus the adjective suffix -ānus formed Vulgar Latin *anteānus. That became Old French ancien and then Middle English auncyen. The /t/, which does not belong to the original word, was added on the model of the common ending -ent.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

  • Latin ante means “before”; adding the adjective-forming suffix -ānus produced reconstructed Vulgar Latin *anteānus. en.wiktionary.org
  • Vulgar Latin *anteānus developed into Old French ancien. en.wiktionary.org
  • The Old French word passed into Middle English as auncyen. en.wiktionary.org
  • The non-etymological /t/ was added by analogy with the common ending -ent. en.wiktionary.org
Meanings 7–8

This sense is a corruption of the word 'ensign.'

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact