Word.ws English Dictionary

fossil word

fossil word noun: a word that is broadly obsolete but remains in current use because it is contained within an idiom that is still in use.

Noun

fossil word (plural fossil words)

  1. A word that is broadly obsolete but remains in current use because it is contained within an idiom that is still in use.

Forms of fossil word

pluralfossil words

Origin of fossil word

Probably from the fact that a fossil was once a living organism, but is still of historical and scientific interest.

Questions about fossil word

What does fossil word mean?
Fossil word means a word that is broadly obsolete but remains in current use because it is contained within an idiom that is still in use.
What part of speech is fossil word?
Fossil word is a noun.
What is the plural of fossil word?
The plural of fossil word is fossil words.

Words near fossil word in the dictionary

  1. fossil resin
  2. fossil twister
  3. fossil twisters
  4. fossil water
  5. fossil waters
  6. fossil word
  7. fossil words
  8. fossilate
  9. fossilated
  10. fossilates
  11. fossilating

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fossil word (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: “fossil word.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fossil_word. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.