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petrified

petrified

7 5.8
Turned into stone over a long time
  • adjective
  • /ˈpɛtrɪˌfaɪd/
translation icon : petrificado
  • The museum displayed a large piece of petrified wood that was millions of years old.
  • a petrified man

Examples

  • WELCOME TO THE PETRIFIED FOREST, THE WORLD'S LARGEST SITE OF PETRIFIED WOOD.

  • The ancient tree had turned into petrified wood after thousands of years.

  • And it was hard, like petrified wood.

  • - The Petrified Forest, Dad.

  • In the petrified forest outside the city.

  • At my feet, I see the petrified wood, and I pick it up.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Do not go off the path and put pieces of petrified forest in your pocket.

  • The perfect material is stone, natural but frozen, organic but still, petrified life.

    Academic text (2000)
  • But then, to everyone's surprise, when we got to the Petrified Forest National Park, he took us in.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • You couldn't take any petrified wood out of the park.

    Fiction book (1994)

Compounds

A national park in northeastern Arizona with many colorful tree logs turned to stone

How Fossilized

petrified
7 5.8
unaltered
5 3.7

Surface Forms

petrified positive

Morphology

petrified = petrify (transparent) = petrify + ed

The adjective is a regular past-participial/derived form of 'petrify' meaning 'turned to stone', so the meaning follows directly from the base verb.

Etymology

Petrified comes from the old Greek root petra meaning 'rock' or 'stone', the same root as the name Peter, which means 'rock'. So something petrified is 'turned into stone'.