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ancient

/ˈeɪn.ʃənt/

When referring to history, "ancient" usually describes a period of time that ended thousands of years ago (like Ancient Egypt). It is more formal than the word "old." In casual conversation, people often use "ancient" as a joke or an exaggeration. For example, calling a 10-year-old phone "ancient" means it feels very old compared to new technology, even if it isn't actually from thousands of years ago.

💬Casual Conversation

🎬Tuesday afternoon, Victoria is in a board meeting while David is at his desk.
Victoria

Stop trying to pivot the strategy. Your data source is ancient.

Victoria
David Smith
David Smith

I thought it was a legacy asset. My bad.

💡
Victoria uses 'ancient' to dismiss David's outdated data as uselessly old. David responds with 'my bad' (casual slang for apologizing) and tries to use the corporate buzzword 'legacy asset' to make an old system sound valuable, which fits his persona of incorrectly using business jargon.

Meanings

adjective

Belonging to the very distant past and no longer in existence.

"The tourists visited the ancient ruins of Pompeii."

adjective

Having lived or existed for a very long time; old.

"He has an ancient computer that takes ten minutes to boot up."

Related Words

Last Updated: May 22, 2026Report an Error