periglacial (per-i-gla'-cial). (a) Said of the processes, conditions, areas, climates, and topographic features at the immediate margins of former and existing glaciers and ice sheets, and influenced by the cold temperature of the ice. (b) By extension, said of an environment in which frost action is an important factor, or of phenomena induced by a periglacial climate beyond the periphery of the ice. Syn: cryergic; cryonival; paraglacial; subnival. Term introduced by Lozinski (1909).