fossilized
adjective, verb
fossilized is an adjective meaning “In a state of fossilization; preserved in rock” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-O-S-S-I-L-I-Z-E-D and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 2 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does fossilized mean?
adjective
- 1
In a state of fossilization; preserved in rock.
- 2
informalOld-fashioned, outmoded, or rigidly fixed in a way that is resistant to change.
- 3
Having become a fossil; no longer productive.
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of fossilize
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce fossilized?
Fossilized has 3 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).
Forms of fossilized
- fossilised
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is fossilized?
Fossilized appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,663rd 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).
Fossilized in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense in a state of fossilisation:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | fossilisé |
| German | fossilisiert, versteinert |
| Portuguese | fossilizado |
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.