Word.ws English Dictionary

Eocene

/ˈiːəsiːn/

Eocene adjective: of a geologic epoch within the Paleogene period from about 56 to 34 million years ago.

Adjective

Eocene (not comparable)

  1. Of a geologic epoch within the Paleogene period from about 56 to 34 million years ago.

Proper noun

Eocene

  1. The Eocene epoch.

Origin of Eocene

From Ancient Greek ἠώς (ēṓs, “dawn”) + καινός (kainós, “new”) and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch. Coined by English polymath William Whewell in 1831 for Charles Lyell, who introduced it in 1833 in his book Principles of Geology. By surface analysis, eo- + -cene.

Questions about Eocene

What does Eocene mean?
Eocene means of a geologic epoch within the Paleogene period from about 56 to 34 million years ago.
What part of speech is Eocene?
Eocene can be an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Eocene?
Eocene is pronounced /ˈiːəsiːn/.

Words near Eocene in the dictionary

  1. eobiotic
  2. eobiotics
  3. EOC
  4. eocardiid
  5. eocardiids
  6. Eocene
  7. Eochaid Feidlech
  8. Eochaid Sálbuide
  9. eocrinoid
  10. eocrinoids
  11. EOCs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Eocene (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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