| 1. | Also called glacial period, ice age. the geologically recent Pleistocene Epoch, during which much of the Northern Hemisphere was covered by great ice sheets. |
| 2. | any one of the Permian, Carboniferous, Cambrian, or Precambrian glaciations. |
| glacial epoch | |
noun | |
| 1. | any period of time during which glaciers covered a large part of the earth's surface; "the most recent ice age was during the Pleistocene" [syn: ice age] |
| 2. | from two million to 11 thousand years ago; extensive glaciation of the northern hemisphere; the time of human evolution [syn: Pleistocene] |