Paleogene
/ˈpeɪl.iəˌd͡ʒin/adjective
Paleogene is an adjective meaning “Of a geologic period within the Cenozoic era; comprises the Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene epochs from about 65 to 23 million years ago” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-A-L-E-O-G-E-N-E, and it appears about once in every 12 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does Paleogene mean?
adjective
- 1
Of a geologic period within the Cenozoic era; comprises the Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene epochs from about 65 to 23 million years ago.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce Paleogene?
- /ˈpeɪl.iəˌd͡ʒin/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of Paleogene
- Palæogene
- Palaeogene
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is Paleogene?
Paleogene appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 105,204th 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).
Paleogene in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense of period from 65 to 23 million years ago:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | paléogène |
| German | Paläogen |
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 Paleogene come from?
From paleo- + -gene. From Ancient Greek παλαιός (palaiós, “old”) + γενεά (geneá, “generation”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).