Prehuman

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One of the human-like creatures that existed before Homo sapiens.

    "They said the find also added to evidence that painted a picture of Homo erectus as the prehumans who took long evolutionary strides — figuratively and, now it seems, also literally."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Preceding the advent of modern humanity, Homo sapiens. not-comparable

    "In the recently opened Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins, there are more than 200 casts of prehuman and human fossils and artifacts that illustrate stages in physical and behavioral evolution."

Synonyms

All synonyms
aboriginalaborigineancestralancientantediluvianantehuman

Example

More examples

"In the recently opened Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins, there are more than 200 casts of prehuman and human fossils and artifacts that illustrate stages in physical and behavioral evolution."

Etymology

From pre- + human.

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