primitive
- adjective
- /ˈprɪmɪtɪv/
- The archaeologists discovered tools used by a primitive society that lived thousands of years ago.
- primitive cultures
- primitive societies
- a primitive stage
And so we look at a very inaccurate and primitive measure of leverage.
- And so we look at a very inaccurate and primitive measure of leverage.
- And you, do you think we are just a primitive version of what this AI is?
- Because we have to remember our primitive brain, our ancestral wiring.
- But it's also been thought of as a sort of primitive condition of nature.
- It's the most primitive sport you could possibly enter.
- I mean, for you, let's start talking about primitive alien life.
- It's not just attached to the more primitive behaviors of food, sex, heat, et cetera.
- And in that Whirlpool thinking is done with the primitive mind tribes.
- We we're we are that primitive in contemplating this future.
Examples
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It all started back during the most primitive times.
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The tools that he used were small and primitive, and they depended on nothing more than manual strength.
Academic text (2012) -
What we have is a government designed for a primitive world nothing like our own.
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It's the most primitive sport you could possibly enter.
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Our copy is still in its original, kind of very primitive form.
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I did know this place because I'd written about a primitive village exactly like it.
Fiction book (1991) -
When dealing with primitive life forms, sometimes one must resort to primitive acts.
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We have met some sort of primitive humanoids.
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We live in a primitive time, don't we, Will?
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When life in this world was nothing but amoebae and primitive plankton, death did not exist.
Fiction book (1993)
Synonyms
Not yet processed or made into useful products
Basic knowledge, skill, or thing at an early stage
Simple and made in a rough way, like early tools
A form of life that comes from an early stage of growth and has changed little since
Very basic and not fully developed
Antonyms
Compounds
- Slur
A person from an early stage of human society now seen as outdated and offensive
- Specialized
Work made by people without formal art training in a simple, direct style
- Specialized
Seeing someone as completely perfect and without faults to protect yourself emotionally
How Advanced
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Etymology
Primitive comes from the Latin root primus, which means 'first' or 'earliest' and is the same root you see in prime and primary. So primitive describes something from an early stage — simple, crude, or not advanced.