Neanderthal

//niːˈæn.dəˌtɑːl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative letter-case form of Neanderthal. alt-of
  2. 2
    A specimen of the now extinct species Homo neanderthalensis.

    "These injuries may reflect the rigors of hunting with the Neanderthals' limited repertoire of weapons; the Neanderthals never seem to have developed projectiles, so they would have to have gotten more or less on top of their prey in order to kill them."

  3. 3
    extinct robust human of Middle Paleolithic in Europe and western Asia wordnet
  4. 4
    A primitive, savage or uncivilized person. derogatory
Adjective
  1. 1
    Alternative letter-case form of Neanderthal. alt-of, not-comparable
  2. 2
    Of or pertaining to Homo neanderthalensis. not-comparable

    "The capacity of the Neanderthal skull was 10% larger than that of modern humans."

  3. 3
    Old-fashioned, opposed to change. broadly, not-comparable
  4. 4
    Of or pertaining to the Neander Valley in Germany. not-comparable
Adjective
  1. 1
    ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance wordnet
  2. 2
    relating to or belonging to or resembling Neanderthal man wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
unrefinedcavemananimalbarbarianbarbaricbarbarous

Example

More examples

"The Neanderthal was named after theologian Joachim Neander."

Etymology

From obsolete German Neanderthal, now spelled Neandertal, the name of a valley (German Tal, older also spelled Thal) near Düsseldorf where the first Neanderthal was discovered in 1856. A hollow near the valley was known as Neanderhöhle (“Neander Hollow”) and Neandershöhle (“Neander’s Hollow”) in the early 19th century, and the valley had been renamed to Neanderthal in 1850, in honour of the German Calvinist theologian and hymn writer Joachim Neander (1650–1680). Before, the valley was known as das Gesteins (literally “The Rocks [sg.]”) and Hundsklipp (literally “Dog Cliff”). The name of Joachim Neander is based on the Ancient Greek translation (νέος (néos) + ᾰ̓νήρ (ănḗr)) of his original surname Neumann (“Newman”). The pronunciation with the "th" sound (/θ/) is a spelling pronunciation; the original German word is pronounced with a "t" sound (/t/).

Related phrases

homines neanderthalenseshomo neanderthalensis

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