Primitive meaning
Of or relating to an early or original stage or state; primeval.
Life in the primitive ocean.
adjective
The definition of primitive is something lacking in sophistication, or not advanced, or bare-bones condition or instincts that resemble animal-instincts and don't require thought.
An example of primitive is a society that has not yet developed or industrialized.
An example of primitive is a cabin in the woods as your sleeping accommodations.
An example of primitive is the urge to eat or use the bathroom.
adjective
Characterized by simplicity or crudity; unsophisticated.
Primitive weapons.
adjective
Not derived from something else; primary or basic.
adjective
Not resulting from conscious thought or deliberation; unconscious or instinctual.
Primitive passions.
adjective
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Occurring in or characteristic of an early stage of development or evolution.
Fossils of primitive angiosperms from the Cretaceous Period.
adjective
Having developed early in the evolutionary history of a group.
Hair is a primitive trait of mammals.
adjective
Regarded as having changed little in evolutionary history. Not in scientific use.
The coelacanth is a primitive fish.
adjective
Serving as the basis for derived or inflected forms.
Pick is the primitive word from which picket is derived.
adjective
Being a protolanguage.
Primitive Germanic.
adjective
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Of or created by an artist without formal training; simple or naive in style.
adjective
Of or relating to late medieval or pre-Renaissance European painters or sculptors.
adjective
A person belonging to a nonindustrial, often tribal society, especially a society characterized by a low level of economic or technological complexity.
noun
An unsophisticated or unintelligent person.
noun
An algebraic or geometric expression from which another expression is derived.
noun
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A basic or fundamental unit of machine instruction or translation.
noun
One belonging to an early stage in the development of an artistic trend, especially a painter of the pre-Renaissance period.
noun
An artist having or affecting a simple, direct, unschooled style, as of painting.
noun
A work of art created by a primitive artist.
noun
A word or word element from which another word is derived by morphological or historical processes or from which inflected forms are derived.
noun
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A basic and indivisible unit of linguistic analysis.
noun
Of or existing in the beginning or the earliest times or ages; ancient; original.
adjective
Not derivative; primary; basic.
adjective
Of or having to do with a preliterate, generally isolated, culture with a relatively low level of technology.
adjective
Characteristic or imitative of the earliest ages.
adjective
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Crude, simple, rough, uncivilized, etc.
adjective
Designating or of an organism, organ, etc. at the starting point of its evolutionary development or very little evolved from early ancestral types.
adjective
A primitive person or thing.
noun
A form from which another is derived.
noun
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The form from which a certain word or other form has been derived; root; base.
noun
An artist or a work of art of an early, esp. preliterate, culture.
noun
An artist or a work of art that shows ingenuousness and lack of formal training.
noun
Relating to an early or original stage.
Having evolved very little from an early type. Lampreys and sturgeon are primitive fishes.
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(computing, programming) A data type that is built into the programming language, as opposed to more complex structures.
noun
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Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times; original; primordial; primeval; first.
Primitive innocence; the primitive church.
adjective
Of or pertaining to or harking back to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity.
A primitive style of dress.
adjective
(grammar) Original; primary; radical; not derived.
A primitive verb.
adjective
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Of or relating to a nonindustrial, often tribal culture, especially one that is characterized by an absence of literacy and a low level of economic or technological complexity.
Primitive societies.
adjective
One that is at a low or early stage of development.
noun
Origin of primitive
Middle English from Old French primitif, primitive from Latin prīmitīvus from prīmitus at first from prīmus first per1 in Indo-European roots