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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ancient.

Having lasted from a remote period; having been of long duration; of great age, very old.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈeɪn.ʃənt//ˈeɪn.t͡ʃənt//ˈeɪŋk.ʃənt/nonstandard/ˈæn.ʃənt/dialectal

  1. Having lasted from a remote period; having been of long duration; of great age, very old.

    an ancient city
    an ancient forest

  2. Existent or occurring in time long past, usually in remote ages; belonging to or associated with antiquity; old, as opposed to modern.

    an ancient author
    an ancient empire

  3. Relating to antiquity as a primarily European historical period; the time before the Middle Ages.

  4. Experienced; versed.

    obsolete

  5. Former; sometime.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English auncyen, from Old French ancien, from Vulgar Latin *anteānus, composed of Latin ante (“before”) + -ānus (adjective-forming suffix). The non-etymological excrescent /t/ is by analogy with the common ending -ent.

noun/ˈeɪn.ʃənt//ˈeɪn.t͡ʃənt//ˈeɪŋk.ʃənt/nonstandard/ˈæn.ʃənt/dialectal

  1. A person who is very old.

  2. A person who lived in ancient times.

  3. One of the senior members of the Inns of Court or of Chancery.

    UK

  4. A senior; an elder; a predecessor.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English auncyen, from Old French ancien, from Vulgar Latin *anteānus, composed of Latin ante (“before”) + -ānus (adjective-forming suffix). The non-etymological excrescent /t/ is by analogy with the common ending -ent.

noun/ˈeɪn.ʃənt//ˈeɪn.t͡ʃənt//ˈeɪŋk.ʃənt/nonstandard/ˈæn.ʃənt/dialectal

  1. A flag, banner, standard or ensign.

    archaic

  2. The bearer of a flag; ensign.

    obsolete · rare
Where this word comes from

Corruption of ensign.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.