Jurassic Meaning
/d͡ʒʊˈɹæs.ɪk/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adj/nounRelating to the Jurassic geologic period.
adjOf or pertaining to the second period of the Mesozoic era, a time still dominated by dinosaurs.
Sentence Examples
The dinosaurs in the film "Jurassic Park" were true-to-life.
When I was a kid, I loved the film Jurassic Park.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ period is famous for the dominance of large dinosaurs.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ period is a geologic period that is famous for the large dinosaurs that lived during that time.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from French Jurassique, named for the discovery and type location in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland. The -assic suffix was extracted from Triassic.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"His father squinted at the skeleton. “What is it, Jurassic?” “Jeez. No. Cretaceous.” “Cretaceous? What's the difference between Cretaceous and Jurassic?” “Only about a hundred million years,” Tim said. “Cretaceous is older?” “No, Dad, Jurassic is older.”"
— 1990, Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park, Alfred A. Knopf, page 94:
"Fossils are particularly well described from the Carboniferous, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and have been found in the USA, England, Russia, Lebanon and Germany. Sites such as Lyme Regis in Dorset have particularly yielded number of Jurassic “squid” ink sacs and nodules (Doguzhaeva et al. 2004)."
— 2017 August 9, Mark Carnall, “Why do cephalopods produce ink? And what's ink made of, anyway?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 12 Jan 2026:
"The Jurassic, the Spanish and the Italian federations and sections of the International Working Men's Association, as also the French, the German and the American anarchist groups, were for the next years the chief centres of anarchist thought and propaganda."
— 1910, Peter Kropotkin, “Anarchism”, in Encyclopædia Britannica:
"Those fears and excuses seem positively Jurassic more than eighty years later."
— 2009 March, Byron Rempel, “Women's Ski Jumping Takes Aim at the Winter Olympics”, in Skiing Heritage Journal, volume 21, number 1, page 17:
"For every three shops or restaurants that looked as if they might have had a poster of Che Guevara somewhere on the premises, there was one stubborn Jurassic retailer offering knit suits for older women or an Italian restaurant that offered all-you-can-eat garlic bread and didn't call itself a trattoria."
— 2017, Dean Koontz, The Silent Corner, page 93:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ period is famous for the dominance of large dinosaurs.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ period is a geologic period that is famous for the large dinosaurs that lived during that time.