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PlainSpell

ancient

/ˈeɪn.ʃənt/adjective, noun

ancient is spelled A-N-C-I-E-N-T: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 48 times per million words in written English, the 2,113th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, ancient means “Having lasted from a remote period; having been of long duration; of great age, very old” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in ancient?

Letters7: A-N-C-I-E-N-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing48 times per million words; the 2,113th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is ancient?

Ancient appears 48 times per million words in written English, the 2,113th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce ancient?

  • /ˈeɪn.ʃənt/
  • /ˈeɪn.t͡ʃənt/
  • /ˈeɪŋk.ʃənt/

Ancient has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-ancient.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with ancient?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as ancient.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: catenin.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of ancient

  • ancienter comparative
  • more ancient comparative
  • ancientest superlative
  • most ancient superlative
  • ancientmost superlative
  • antient
  • ancients plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does ancient mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

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

    an ancient city

  2. 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

  3. 3

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

  4. 4

    obsoleteExperienced; versed.

  5. 5

    obsoleteFormer; sometime.

noun

  1. 1

    A person who is very old.

  2. 2

    A person who lived in ancient times.

  3. 3

    UKOne of the senior members of the Inns of Court or of Chancery.

  4. 4

    obsoleteA senior; an elder; a predecessor.

  5. 5

    archaicA flag, banner, standard or ensign.

  6. 6

    obsoleterareThe bearer of a flag; ensign.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate ancient?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of ancient: anct..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Ancient in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchancien, antique (having lasted from a remote period)
Germanhistorisch, altbacken, antiquiert, vorsintflutlich, uralt (having lasted from a remote period), alt (existent or occurring in time long past)
Portugueseantigo (having lasted from a remote period)
Spanishantiguo, anciano (having lasted from a remote period), antiquísimo (existent or occurring in time long past)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does ancient come 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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after ancient