carboniferous

1. 1.

   of or relating to the Carboniferous geologic era

   “carboniferous rock system”
2. 2.

   relating to or consisting of or yielding carbon

   Synonymscarbonaceouscarbonouscarbonic

1. 1.

   from 345 million to 280 million years ago

   SynonymsCarboniferous period

   Broaderperiod

   Part ofPaleozoic

   PartsPennsylvanianMississippian

Other forms of carboniferous

plural

carboniferouses·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about carboniferous

What does carboniferous mean?

carboniferous means "of or relating to the Carboniferous geologic era". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in carboniferous?

carboniferous has 5 syllables: car-bo-nif-e-rous. The stress falls on "nif". In IPA it is /ˌkɑɹbəˈnɪfɚəs/.

What is another word for carboniferous?

Close synonyms include carbonaceous, carbonous, carbonic, Carboniferous period. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is carboniferous a common word?

carboniferous is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with carboniferous?

1 word rhymes with carboniferous. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.