English

Adjective

stadial ‎(comparative more stadial, superlative most stadial)

1. (geology) Pertaining to a glacial stade.
2. (archaeology, sociology) Pertaining to or existing in successive stages of a given culture, society etc.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 188:

     He drew on the growing ethnographic record contained in travellers' tales about extra-European societies to develop a stadial view of human evolution according to which each society passed through the stages of hunting, pastoral life, farming and trading – a schema which had no place for scriptural precept.

Derived terms

• interstadial
• intrastadial
• stadialism
• stadialist
• stadially
• trans-stadial
• trans-stadially

Noun

stadial ‎(plural stadials)

1. (geology) A short, colder period within an interglacial; a stade.