Prehistoric

adj

adj ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or relating to the epoch before written record.

    "Was it then in a pre-historic time that the Romans wandered into these lands?"

  2. 2
    Ancient; very old, outdated, etc.

    "Your idea of a woman is some one who gets on a chair and shrieks if she sees a mouse. That’s all prehistoric."

Adjective
  1. 1
    outdated wordnet
  2. 2
    belonging to or existing in times before recorded history wordnet
  3. 3
    of or relating to times before written history wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
aboriginalancestralancientante bellumante-historicantediluvian

Example

More examples

"Prehistoric men were skilled in knapping."

Etymology

From pre- (“before”) + historic, q.v., similar to slightly earlier ante-historic.

Related phrases

prehistoric age

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