Word.ws English Dictionary

Precambrian

Syllables: Pre·cam·bri·anUK/priːˈkam.bɹɪ.ən//priˈkæm.bɹi.ən/

Precambrian adjective: relating to the time and geology dated before the Phanerozoic.

Adjective

Precambrian (not comparable)

  1. (informal) Relating to the time and geology dated before the Phanerozoic
    • When you look at a Precambrian trilobite in the lobby of a New York bank, it is difficult to speculate about its primeval environment.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 209

Proper noun

Precambrian

  1. The Precambrian supereon; spanning from the formation of the Earth around 4.6 billion years ago to the emergence of hard-shelled creatures 541 million years ago.
    Synonyms:
    Cryptozoic

Synonyms of Precambrian

Antonyms

Forms of Precambrian

alternative formPre-Cambrian

Origin of Precambrian

From pre- + Cambrian.

Questions about Precambrian

What does Precambrian mean?
Precambrian means relating to the time and geology dated before the Phanerozoic.
What part of speech is Precambrian?
Precambrian can be an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Precambrian?
Precambrian is pronounced /priːˈkam.bɹɪ.ən/ (UK).

Words near Precambrian in the dictionary

  1. precalculus
  2. precalibrated
  3. precalibration
  4. precalibrations
  5. precambered
  6. Precambrian
  7. precame
  8. precampaign
  9. precampaigns
  10. precancel
  11. precancelation

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Precambrian (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-Precambrian.wav.

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