fossilized

Thân thiện

A paleontologist carefully brushes dirt from a fossilized dinosaur bone.

Definition

Adjective: 1. Converted into a fossil; preserved in rock: Describes organic material that has been mineralized and turned into a fossil over a very long period of time. 2. Figuratively, rigidly fixed and unable to change: Describes ideas, practices, systems, or behaviors that have become outdated, inflexible, and resistant to change, as if turned to stone.

Usage and Examples

• Literal (Geological):
  • The museum displayed a fossilized dinosaur bone.
  • They found a piece of fossilized wood in the sedimentary rock.
• Figurative (Describing rigidity):
  • The company failed because of its fossilized management structure.
  • His views on education are completely fossilized.
  • We need to reform these fossilized regulations.

Advanced Usage and Nuances

• The figurative use often carries a critical or negative connotation, implying that something is not just old, but stubbornly obsolete and ineffective.
• It can describe institutions (a fossilized bureaucracy), traditions, or even linguistic forms (a fossilized grammatical error in a language learner's speech that does not improve).

Variants and Related Words

• Fossilize (verb): The process of becoming a fossil or becoming rigidly fixed.
  • The ancient tree trunk slowly fossilized over millions of years.
  • His opinions had fossilized decades ago.
• Fossil (noun): The preserved remains or impression of an organism, or a person with outdated ideas.
• Fossilization (noun): The process of fossilizing.

Synonyms

• Literal: Petrified, mineralized.
• Figurative: Ossified, anachronistic, outdated, archaic, rigid, inflexible, fixed, entrenched.

Antonyms

• Figurative: Modern, current, flexible, adaptable, progressive, evolving.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Set in stone: Very difficult or impossible to change. (Similar to the figurative meaning of "fossilized").
  • The plan isn't set in stone; we can still modify it. (Contrasts with a fossilized plan).

Học thuật

Adjective

1. set in a rigidly conventional pattern of behavior, habits, or beliefs
   • obsolete fossilized ways
   • an ossified bureaucratic system

Từ đồng nghĩa

• fossilised
• ossified