Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to geologic periods that precede the appearance of life.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Destitute of organic life: in geology, applied to rocks which are destitute of any fossil remains or other evidence of the existence of life at the period of their deposition.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Destitute of any vestige of organic life, or at least of animal life; anterior to the existence of animal life; formed when there was no animal life on the globe. rocks.
  • adjective (Geol.) the age preceding the existence of animal life, or anterior to the paleozoic tome. Azoic is also used as a noun, age being understood. See Archæan, and Eozoic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Destitute of any vestige of organic life, or at least of animal life; anterior to the existence of animal life; formed when there was no animal life on the globe; as, the azoic rocks.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective before the appearance of life

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

a- + -zoic

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Examples

  • Scientists long ago clung to the "azoic hypothesis" about the deep -- the presumption that nothing could possibly be alive so far from the photosynthetic world.

    Gulf oil spill imperils Justin Bieber 2010

  • They imagined they could distinguish certain geological relations and families, and would talk about trilobites, the Old Red Sandstone period, and the azoic age, or follow random speculation to far-lying conclusions, developing vague humors of phrase and fancy, having altogether a joyful good time.

    Mark Twain: A Biography 2003

  • Had they determined to study the subject of life, as we have done, from the Bible as well as from nature, they would have commenced at these toad-producing rocks, and worked their way upward to the source of all life, and not downward to the vanishing point -- that where animal life ceases in the azoic rocks.

    Life: Its True Genesis R. W. Wright

  • He has explored portions of that continent as far down as the azoic rocks, and made many important discoveries as to the past life of the globe.

    Life: Its True Genesis R. W. Wright

  • The obelisks are all formed of granite, the foundation-stone of the globe, belonging to the oldest azoic formation, which laid down the first basis for the appearing of life.

    Roman Mosaics Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood Hugh Macmillan

  • Plutonic action would be very general, and volcanic mud, ash, and sand would be ejected and spread far and wide, which, sinking to the bottom of the water, may possibly be the origin of what we now designate the azoic or metamorphic slates and schists, as also the early Cambrian and Silurian strata.

    Getting Gold: a practical treatise for prospectors, miners and students

  • The problem belongs to the science of statistics, and it is a most difficult affair for anyone whose mathematics is primitive, and mine remain azoic in spite of the half dozen manuals which I once devoutly imagined that I understood.

    Public Opinion Walter Lippmann 1931

  • What though it be only an azoic extract of intense potato, dimly tinct with sargasso and macaroni -- it has a pleasing warmth and bulk.

    Shandygaff Christopher Morley 1923

  • The presence of phosphatic nodules and bituminous matter, even in some of the lowest azoic rocks, probably indicates life at these periods; and the existence of the Eozoön in the Laurentian formation of Canada is generally admitted.

    X. On the Imperfection of the Geological Record. On the Sudden Appearance of Groups of Allied Species in the Lowest Known Fossiliferous Strata 1909

  • They imagined they could distinguish certain geological relations and families, and would talk about trilobites, the Old Red Sandstone period, and the azoic age, or follow random speculation to far-lying conclusions, developing vague humors of phrase and fancy, having altogether a joyful good time.

    Mark Twain, a Biography. Complete Albert Bigelow Paine 1899

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