Word Study
cenozoic
CIDE DICTIONARY
cenozoic, a. [Gr. recent + life.].
Belonging to the most recent division of geological time, including the tertiary, or Age of mammals, and the Quaternary, or Age of man. [Written also cænozoic , cainozoic , kainozoic .] See Geology. [1913 Webster]
" This word is used by many authors as synonymous with Tertiary, the Quaternary Age not being included." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
cenozoic, (also Cainozoic, Caenozoic) adj. & n. Geol.
--adj. of or relating to the most recent era of geological time, marked by the evolution and development of mammals, birds, and flowers.
--adj. of or relating to the most recent era of geological time, marked by the evolution and development of mammals, birds, and flowers.
Usage
Cf. Appendix II.
--n. this era (cf. MESOZOIC, PALAEOZOIC).
--n. this era (cf. MESOZOIC, PALAEOZOIC).
Etymology
Gk kainos new + zoion animal
ROGET THESAURUS
cenozoic
Oldness
N oldness, age, antiquity, cobwebs of antiquity, maturity, decline, decay, senility, seniority, eldership, primogeniture, archaism, thing of the past, relic of the past, megatherium, Sanskrit, tradition, prescription, custom, immemorial usage, common law, old, ancient, antique, of long standing, time-honored, venerable, elder, eldest, firstborn, prime, primitive, primeval, primigenous, paleolontological, paleontologic, paleoanthropological, paleoanthropic, paleolithic, primordial, primordinate, aboriginal, diluvian, antediluvian, protohistoric, prehistoric, antebellum, colonial, precolumbian, patriarchal, preadamite, paleocrystic, fossil, paleozoolical, paleozoic, preglacial, antemundane, archaic, classic, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite, ancestral, black-letter, immemorial, traditional, prescriptive, customary, whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contr, inveterate, rooted, antiquated, of other times, rococo, of the old school, after-age, obsolete, out of date, out of fashion, out of it, stale, old-fashioned, behind the age, old-world, exploded, gone out, gone by, passe, run out, senile, time worn, crumbling, secondhand, old as the hills, old as Methuselah, old as Adam, old as history, Archeozoic, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, Paleogene, Neocene, Quaternary, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent, since the world was made, since the year one, since the days of Methuselah, vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.For further exploring for "cenozoic" in Webster Dictionary Online