relict
/ˈɹɛlɪkt/
relict noun: the surviving member of a married couple after one or the other has died; a widow or widower.
Noun
relict (plural relicts)
- The surviving member of a married couple after one or the other has died; a widow or widower.
- Upon which the Chancellor, by way of note said, 'it is suggested, that there is a relict of the deceased, married to another man, who has joined her in a power of attorney to authorize the sale of her interest, […]'1801, Reports of cases decided in the High court of Chancery of Maryland, volume 3, page 268
- But I am not the penniless nonentity I was when we first met; I can offer an honorable if not a brilliant marriage; and at the very lowest I can provide my wife – my widow, my relict – with a decent competence, an assured future.1973, Patrick O'Brian, HMS Surprise
- A species, organism, or ecosystem that has survived from a previous age: one that was once widespread but is now found only in a few areas.
- […] a continental northern Alaskan element, including a series of endemic species and disjuncts that have survived the Pleistocene glaciation in northern Alaska and thus represent relicts of the much warmer Tertiary […]1966 October, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume I, New York, N.Y.; London: Columbia University Press, →OCLC, page 4
- The species may be a relict of former stages of historical vegetation and landscape development resulting from past climate changes (glacial and post- glacial periods).2010, M. Zimmerman et al., edited by Jan Christian Habel and Thorsten Assmann, Relict Species: Phylogeography and Conservation Biology, page 324
- A structure or other feature that has survived from a previous age.
- Dark rims around the pillows are caused by glaucophane enrichment, possibly a relict of a primary interaction between basalt and seawater, causing Na- enrichment in the original glass crust of the pillows.2011, Mark Keiter, Chris Ballhaus, Frank Tomaschek, A New Geological Map of the Island of Syros (Aegean Sea, Greece), page 16
- A survival of an archaic word, language or other form.
- A small number of linguists believe that Cimbrian is not an Austro-Bavarian dialect but a relict of Lombardic.
Adjective
relict (not comparable)
- Surviving, remaining.
- That is a relict; pertaining to a relict.
- In the lakes and in the streams were species of fish not known elsewhere on earth and birds and lizards and other forms of life as well all long relict here for the desert stretched away on every side.1992, Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, page 97
Forms of relict
| plural | relicts |
|---|
Origin of relict
Inherited from Middle English relicte (“widow”), from Middle French relicte (“widow”), from Late Latin relicta (“widow”), from Latin relictus, past participle of relinquō (“to abandon, to relinquish, to leave (behind)”), from re- + linquō (“to leave, quit, forsake, depart from”). Doublet of relic, derelict, and relinquish.
Words formed from relict
Questions about relict
- What does relict mean?
- Relict means the surviving member of a married couple after one or the other has died; a widow or widower.
- What part of speech is relict?
- Relict can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce relict?
- Relict is pronounced /ˈɹɛlɪkt/.
- What is the plural of relict?
- The plural of relict is relicts.
Words near relict in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: relict (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-relict.wav.
Cite this entry: “relict.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/relict. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.