Medieval

//ˌmɛd.iˈiː.vəl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Someone living in the Middle Ages.
  2. 2
    A medieval example (of something aforementioned or understood from context).

    "Thank God for modern remedies: the medievals were often useless or even harmful."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or relating to the Middle Ages, the period from approximately 500 to 1500 AD.

    "The book significantly extends on Rosenstein’s monumental 1990 work, “The Unbroken Chain,” which focused on the genealogies of the major Ashkenazi rabbinic dynasties from medieval times to the present."

  2. 2
    Having characteristics associated with the Middle Ages in popular, modern cultural perception:; Archaic.
  3. 3
    Having characteristics associated with the Middle Ages in popular, modern cultural perception:; Brutal.

    "Brute force can get you into any apartment if you want to get medieval about it."

Adjective
  1. 1
    as if belonging to the Middle Ages; old-fashioned and unenlightened wordnet
  2. 2
    characteristic of the time of chivalry and knighthood in the Middle Ages wordnet
  3. 3
    relating to or belonging to the Middle Ages wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
antediluvianantiquatedantiquearchaicarchitecturebackward

Example

More examples

"My major is medieval European history."

Etymology

From French médiéval (“medieval”), from Latin medium (“middle”) + aevum (“age”).

Related phrases

Medieval Climate AnomalyMedieval Climate OptimumMedieval LatinMedieval Warm Periodget medievalmedieval embroiderymedieval guipuremedieval literaturemedieval studiesmedieval synthesispost-medievalmiddle ages

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.