From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishancientan‧cient1 /ˈeɪnʃənt/ ●●● W2 adjective 1 OLD/NOT NEWbelonging to a time long ago in history, especially thousands of years ago OPP modern the ancient civilizations of Asiaancient Greece/Egypt/Rome the religion of ancient Egypt2 LONG TIMEhaving existed for a very long time OPP new an ancient walled city an ancient forest the ancient art of calligraphy3 OLD/NOT YOUNGvery old – used humorously That photo makes me look ancient!► see thesaurus at old4 → ancient history
Examples from the Corpus
ancient• He's not just old, he's ancient.• Here are some recent piano releases for keyboards, solo and duo, ancient and modern.• Those assembled along the hill lines are keeping alive one of the world's most ancient and wide spread fertility rites.• The ancient Chinese believed that we are born with a finite amount of energy in our bodies called chi.• the pyramids of ancient Egypt• Doc drives an ancient Ford convertible.• an ancient Greek vase• Mum looks absolutely ancient in this picture.• This refrigerator is ancient -- it's time we bought a new one.• I prefer the more austere skeletons of the corals that live frugal, ancient lives in the deep sea.• This is a wonderful piece of ancient machinery of indeterminate age, and consists of a crank-driven triple piston pump.• Rome is famous for its ancient monuments.• Above the lip of the gorge he found traces of that ancient river bank.• The Samaritans have managed to keep only a few ancient texts.• The Great Forest is an ancient, vast and very varied woodland.• His conquests transformed the ancient world and ushered in the Hellenistic age of great monarchies.ancient Greece/Egypt/Rome• Unquestionably it was ancient Rome's greatest legacy to the medieval world, greater probably even than its literature and its poetry.• From ancient Rome to the Weimar Republic to the Carter presidency, regimes have been rotted by the monetary cancer called inflation.• Fifteen metres below the surface of a man-made lake, the unknown treasures of ancient Rome will be abandoned for ever.ancientancient2 noun → the ancientsExamples from the Corpus
ancient• To even the earliest Western visitors, the odd, boxy letters evoked the ancients.• Was she, he wondered, trying to make another fire in the fashion of the ancients?• The best fuel of the ancients was wood.• The comets that streaked the skies and scared the ancients were powered by Fenna's breath.• Among the Copernicans there was exhilaration at the thought that man, in his astronomical understanding, had now surpassed the ancients.• According to the ancients, seven planets circle the sun, hence the seven dwarfs.• The ancients staged mock battles to parallel the tempests in nature and reduce their fear of gods who warred across the sky.Origin ancient1 (1300-1400) Old French ancien, from Vulgar Latin anteanus, from Latin ante “before” 