Word.ws English Dictionary

Riphaean

UK/ˈɹɪfɪən/

Riphaean adjective: designating a range of mountains once thought to be located in northern Europe, later considered mythological or identified with the Urals.

Adjective

Riphaean (not comparable)

  1. (historical) Designating a range of mountains once thought to be located in northern Europe, later considered mythological or identified with the Urals.
    • The substance, whereof she the body made, / Was purest snow in massy mould congeald, / Which she had gathered in a shady glade / Of the Riphœan hills […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Proper noun

the Riphaean

  1. An age from 1650 to 650 million years ago, a subdivision of the Proterozoic.

Forms of Riphaean

alternative formRiphæan
alternative formRiphean
alternative formRiphœan
alternative formRiphoean

Origin of Riphaean

From Latin Rīphaeus + -an. Compare Rhipaean.

Questions about Riphaean

What does Riphaean mean?
Riphaean means designating a range of mountains once thought to be located in northern Europe, later considered mythological or identified with the Urals.
What part of speech is Riphaean?
Riphaean can be an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Riphaean?
Riphaean is pronounced /ˈɹɪfɪən/ (UK).

Words near Riphaean in the dictionary

  1. ripgut
  2. ripgut brome
  3. ripgut fence
  4. ripgut fences
  5. ripgut grass
  6. Riphaean
  7. Riphagen
  8. Riphagens
  9. Riphean
  10. Ripiceni
  11. ripicolous

Source and license

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