| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| relict |
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| SYLLABICATION: | rel·ict |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  r l  kt, r-lkt |
| NOUN: | 1. Ecology An organism or species of an earlier time surviving in an environment that has undergone considerable change. 2. Something that has survived; a remnant. 3. A widow. | | ADJECTIVE: | Geology Of or relating to something that has survived, as structures or minerals after destructive processes. | | ETYMOLOGY: | From Middle English relicte, left undisturbed, from Latin relictus, past participle of relinquere, to leave behind; see relinquish. Sense 3, Middle English relicte, from Medieval Latin relicta, from feminine past participle of Latin relinquere.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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