Word.ws English Dictionary

epigean

epigean adjective: that lives on or near the surface of the land.

Adjective

epigean (not comparable)

  1. That lives on or near the surface of the land.
    • For other Leptodirini, the contraction of the life cycle is less radical, being intermediate between this extreme and a epigean life cycle.2015 July 8, “Convergent Reduction of Ovariole Number Associated with Subterranean Life in Beetles”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI

Noun

epigean (plural epigeans)

  1. Any organism that lives on or near the surface of the land.
    • We also studied the female internal system for a species in the subgenus Aphaenops (Cerbaphaenops), and two species belonging to two other genera, one endogean (Geotrechus) and one epigean (Trechus).2015 July 8, “Convergent Reduction of Ovariole Number Associated with Subterranean Life in Beetles”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI

Forms of epigean

pluralepigeans

Origin of epigean

From Ancient Greek ἐπίγειος (epígeios, “earthly”), from ἐπί (epí, “on top of”) + γαῖα (gaîa, “earth”).

Questions about epigean

What does epigean mean?
Epigean means that lives on or near the surface of the land.
What part of speech is epigean?
Epigean can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near epigean in the dictionary

  1. epigastric
  2. epigastrical
  3. epigastrium
  4. epigea
  5. epigeal
  6. epigean
  7. epigeans
  8. epigee
  9. epigees
  10. epigeic
  11. epigene

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: epigean (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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