Word.ws English Dictionary

glacial

UK/ˈɡleɪ.sɪəl/

glacial adjective: of, or relating to glaciers.

Adjective

glacial (comparative more glacial, superlative most glacial)

  1. Of, or relating to glaciers.
    • We examined the glacial deposits.
    • Wang Shijin is a glacier expert and director of the Yulong Snow Mountain Glacial and Environmental Observation Research Station.
  2. (figuratively) Very slow.
    • He could remember a day that he had spent the whole of (he couldn't have been more than ten) running one of the great, creaking freight elevators at a glacial speed, answering the calls of the bell—one ring, five rings, three rings—with an almost unbearable sense of responsibility.1917, Everybody's Magazine - Volume 37, Issue 2, Ridgeway Company, page 56
    • I understand that you commented that the Japanese are moving at glacial speed. This is not the only area where they are moving at glacial speed. They are moving at glacial speed in terms of trade barriers, and it is one thing that the American people recognize.1953, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services, Defense Department Authorization and Oversight, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 1251
  3. Cold and icy.
    • After the rain and frost, the pavements were glacial.
  4. Having the appearance of ice.
    • On cold days, glacial acetic acid will freeze in the bottle.
  5. (figuratively) Cool and unfriendly.
    • He gave me a glacial stare.

Noun

glacial (plural glacials)

  1. A glacial period (colloquially known as an ice age).
    Synonyms:
    ice age

Proper noun capitalized: Glacial

Glacial

  1. Of the Pleistocene period dominated by the presence of glaciers.

glacial meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

glacial in Hindi

ग्लेशियल, हिमनदीय

glacial in Tamil

ஒளிபுகும் திண்மம், பனிக்கட்டி ஒத்த

glacial in Urdu

برفانی, منجمد

glacial in Bengali

বরফ সংক্রান্ত, হিমবাহ সংক্রান্ত, অত্যন্ত ধীর গতিসম্পন্ন
More languagesFewer languages
glacial in Telugu
హిమనదీయ
glacial in Malayalam
ഹിമമയമായ, ഹിമത്താലുണ്ടായ, ഉറഞ്ഞുകട്ടിയായ
glacial in Punjabi
ਗਲੇਸ਼ੀਅਲ, ਗਲੇਸ਼ਿਅਲ
glacial in Odia
ଗ୍ଲେସିଆଲ୍, ଗ୍ଲେସିଆଲ
glacial in Nepali
ग्लेसियल, ग्लेशियल

Examples of glacial in a sentence

  • Kilimanjaro in Tanzania retreated between December 1986 and 2020, as well as glacial melt in Sermersooq, Greenland, between December 2000 and 2020.2022 April 22, Toyin Owoseje, “Google marks Earth Day with doodle showing stark impacts of the climate crisis”, in CNN, archived from the...
  • Paradoxically, then, the electronic speed offered by computer-based decision-making is often overwhelmed by the glacial speed of data reformatting and checking.1999, Michael Goodchild, Max J. Egenhofer, Robin Fegeas, Cliff Kottman, Interoperating Geographic Information Systems, Springer Science &...
  • Progress on judicial reform has been glacial, meeting enormous resistance.2010 October 16, “Under the volcano”, in The Economist:
  • Lower-level people added front-line information that ordinarily wouldn't have made it up the hierarchy to the executive committee (or would have made it at glacial speed).2014, John P. Kotter, Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World, Harvard Business Review Press, →ISBN, page 96:

All 40 example sentences with glacial

Synonyms of glacial

Forms of glacial

Adjective
comparativemore glacial
superlativemost glacial
Noun
pluralglacials

Origin of glacial

Borrowed from French glacial, from Latin glaciālis, from glaciēs (“ice”). The sense "slow" refers to the speed of actual glaciers, typically around 1 meter per day.

Words formed from glacial

Phrases with glacial

Words that rhyme with glacial

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about glacial

What does glacial mean?
Glacial means of, or relating to glaciers.
What is glacial in Hindi?
Glacial in Hindi is ग्लेशियल, हिमनदीय. See Glacial meaning in Hindi.
How do you use glacial in a sentence?
Kilimanjaro in Tanzania retreated between December 1986 and 2020, as well as glacial melt in Sermersooq, Greenland, between December 2000 and 2020.
What part of speech is glacial?
Glacial can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce glacial?
Glacial is pronounced /ˈɡleɪ.sɪəl/ (UK).

Words near glacial in the dictionary

  1. Glace Bay
  2. glace de viande
  3. glacette
  4. glacettes
  5. glaci-
  6. glacial
  7. glacial acetic acid
  8. glacial acid
  9. glacial buzz saw
  10. glacial drift
  11. glacial drifts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: glacial (page history and authors); Glacial (page history and authors); glacial (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); glacial (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); glacial (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Glacial (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); glacial (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); glacial (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); glacial (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); glacial (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); glacial (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-glacial.ogg.

Cite this entry: “glacial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/glacial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.