Word.ws English Dictionary

Archæan

Archæan is the archaic form of Archaean.

Meaning of Archaean

Adjective

Archaean (not comparable)

  1. Of or relating to Arche, the Muse of beginnings in Greek mythology.
  2. Of, or relating to the geologic eon from about 4,031 to 2,500 million years ago; comprises the Eoarchean, Paleoarchean, Mesoarchean and Neoarchean eras; marked by an atmosphere with little oxygen, the formation of the first continents and oceans and the emergence of simple life.
    • The oldest vestiges of continental crust, which date from the Archaean aeon about 4 billion years ago, are in Acasta in north-west Canada.2006 March 25, NewScientist, page 12/1
  3. ("Archean" only) Of or relating to the irregular Jovian moon named for Arche.

See all 5 meanings of archaean

Forms of Archæan

comparativemore Archæan
superlativemost Archæan

Questions about Archæan

What is Archæan the archaic form of?
Archæan is the archaic form of Archaean.

Words near Archæan in the dictionary

  1. archwizard
  2. archwizards
  3. archwork
  4. archy
  5. archæ-
  6. Archæan
  7. archæastronomy
  8. archæbacteria
  9. archæbacterium
  10. archæic
  11. archæism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Archæan (page history and authors); Archaean (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Archæan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/arch%C3%A6an. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.