fossil

noun

Definition of fossilnext
as in conservative
a person with old-fashioned ideas some old fossil who thinks that a boy and a girl shouldn't be together unsupervised until they are engaged

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of fossil Walls of glass frame a 180-acre lake and riparian forest, while a decorative objet d’art above the stone fireplace embedded with 10-million-year-old fish fossils serves as a focal point. — David Caraccio updated July 4, Sacbee.com, 4 July 2026 Trends in recent decades point to an overall warming of average temperatures in winter as well as fall, spring and summer, from human activities such as fossil-fuel burning that release heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. — Evgenia Anastasakos, Chicago Tribune, 29 June 2026 Excavators uncovered stone artifacts and bones of Stegodon florensis insularis, a bison-size extinct relative of elephants, near the Homo floresiensis fossils. — Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 3 July 2026 The fossils date to the Paleocene Epoch, the first 10 million years after the end-Cretaceous extinction, during which mammals rapidly diversified as ecosystems slowly recovered. — Ashley Vega, PEOPLE, 3 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for fossil
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fossil
  1. conservative
  2. veteran
  3. fogy
  4. mossback
Noun
  • Vermeule—a former clerk for Scalia—proposes that conservatives should read the Constitution’s ambiguous phrases and general structure in an openly moral way, drawing on principles grounded in the nature and purposes of government.
    — Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 2 July 2026
  • In her final opinion as a Supreme Court justice in 2005, Sandra Day O’Connor – a judicial conservative – reflected on the importance of church-state separation to guarantee full religious freedom.
    — Steven K. Green, The Conversation, 2 July 2026
Definition of conservative
Noun
  • Last month, veteran Hollywood producer Roy Lee got three calls in a single day from executives at three different studios.
    — Cerys Davies, Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2026
  • In addition, veteran forward Andrew Wiggins’ two-year extension worth $34 million with the Heat also became official on Monday.
    — Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 7 July 2026
Definition of veteran
Noun
  • There’s no old fogey-ness to Lorne.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 20 Apr. 2026
  • For the benefit of us old fogies?
    — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 30 Mar. 2026
Definition of fogy
Noun
  • This man performed in all of Shakespeare’s plays, Assumed all parts from mossbacks to boys young.
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Sep. 2019
Definition of mossback

Browse Nearby Words

fosses
fossil
fossilized
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Fossil.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fossil. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on fossil

Nglish: Translation of fossil for Spanish Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about fossil

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