Cär'/bon-if'er-oüs, a.

a. [From carbon, Lat. carbo, and ferre, to bear.] Producing, or containing, carbon or coal.

Carboniferous age (Geol.), the one immediately following the Devonian, or age of fishes, and characterized by the vegetation which formed the coal beds. This age embraces three periods, the Subcarboniferous, the Carboniferous, and the Permian.—Carboniferous formation (Geol.), the series of rocks (including sandstones, shales, limestones, and conglomerates, together with beds of coal) which make up the strata of the carboniferous age or period. Dana.