Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

cretaceous

/kɹəˈteɪ.ʃəs/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.22 in modern English

Syllables: cre-ta-ceous
IPA: /kɹəˈteɪ.ʃəs/

14

Scrabble Score

10

Letters

3

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

name

The geologic period within the Mesozoic era that comprises lower and upper epochs from about 146 to 66 million years ago.

adj

Of or relating to chalk.

adj

Consisting of chalk.

Example Sentences

"As with the Lejeuneaceae, this pattern of massive speciation appears to be correlated with the Cretaceous explosion of the angiosperms and the simultaneous creation of a host of new microenvironments, differing in humidity, light intensity, texture, etc."
"Fossils are particularly well described from the Carboniferous, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and have been found in the USA, England, Russia, Lebanon and Germany. Sites such as Lyme Regis in Dorset have particularly yielded number of Jurassic “squid” ink sacs and nodules (Doguzhaeva et al. 2004)."

Etymology

Specific use of cretaceous.

Origin

Source language: Latin

Word Breakdown

Root: creta

Derived Forms

cretaceously noncretaceous supercretaceous supracretaceous

Phrases

end-Cretaceous

Frequently Paired Words

crayon

Rhymes With

gracious spacious tenacious audacious gaseous herbaceous voracious flirtatious vivacious ostentatious fallacious efficacious

Questions

How do you pronounce cretaceous?: The recorded pronunciation is /kɹəˈteɪ.ʃəs/.
What does cretaceous mean?: The geologic period within the Mesozoic era that comprises lower and upper epochs from about 146 to 66 million years ago.
Where does cretaceous come from?: It is traced to Latin.

How to pronounce cretaceous

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “cretaceous”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/kɹəˈteɪ.ʃəs/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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