archaic
Syllables: ar·cha·icUK/ɑːˈkeɪ.ɪk//ɑɹˈkeɪ.ɪk/
archaic noun: the prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘Paleo-Indian’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American‐paleolithic’, etc.) of human presence in the Western Hemisphere, and the most recent prehistoric period (‘Woodland’, etc.).
Noun
archaic (plural archaics)
- The prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘Paleo-Indian’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American‐paleolithic’, etc.) of human presence in the Western Hemisphere, and the most recent prehistoric period (‘Woodland’, etc.).
- … Archaic Stage … the stage of migratory hunting and gathering cultures continuing into environmental conditions approximately those of the present.1958, Wiley, Gordon R., and Philip Phillips, Method and Theory in American Archaeology, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, page #107
- (A member of) an archaic variety of Homo sapiens.
- [...] prefer the third explanation for the advanced-looking features of Neandertals (Chapter 7) and the Ngandong hominins (Chapter 6), but they have had little to say about the post-Erectine archaics from China.2009, The Human Lineage, page 432
Adjective
archaic (comparative more archaic, superlative most archaic)
- Of or characterized by antiquity; old-fashioned, quaint, antiquated.
- A person familiar with the dialect of certain portions of Massachusetts will not fail to recognize, in ordinary discourse, many words now noted in English vocabularies as archaic, the greater part of which were in common use about the time of the King James translation of the Bible. Shakespeare...1848, James Russel Lowell, The Biglow Papers
- There is in the best archaic coin work [of the Greeks] ... a strength and a delicacy which are often wanting in the fully developed art of a later age.1887, Barclay V. Head, Historia Numorum A Manual Of Greek Numismatics
- No longer in ordinary use, though still used occasionally to give a sense of antiquity and still likely to be understood by well-educated speakers and are found in historical texts.
- The language of the Faerie Queene was made archaic Language:— in order to be in keeping with the chivalry of bygone ages that formed its subject.1893, Harrington Hugh Melville Percival, “Introduction”, in The faerie queene: Book 1, page lxi
- Almost every writer of power will occasionally use with strong effect an archaic term that he has unearthed from the treasures of the older English vocabulary. This is especially true of poets, who recognize that the unusualness of the archaic word will sometimes heighten the poetic effect.1900, Mary Hall Leonard, “The Revival of Old English Words”, in The Writer, volume 13, page 23
- Belonging to the archaic period.
archaic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
archaic in Hindi
- old-fashioned or antiquated
- प्राचीन prācīn, पुरातन purātan
archaic in Tamil
- தொன்மையான, பண்டைய, பழைய, வழக்கொழிந்த, மறைந்த
archaic in Urdu
- قدیم
archaic in Bengali
- archaic
- আদিম adim
More languagesFewer languages
- archaic in Malayalam
- പുരാതനമായ purātanamāya, പുരാതനം purātanaṁ
- archaic in Kannada
- ಬಳಕೆಯಲ್ಲಿಲ್ಲದ, ತುಂಬಾ ಹಳೆಯ, ಪುರಾತನ, ಪ್ರಾಚೀನ
- archaic in Punjabi
- ਪੁਰਾਣਾ purāṇā
- archaic in Arabic
- قَدِيم qadīm
- archaic in Indonesian
- arkais
- archaic in Vietnamese
- cổ hủ
Examples of archaic in a sentence
- Brann's compass of words, idioms and phrases harks back to the archaic and reaches forward to the futuristic.1898, William Cowper Brann, The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast:
- An inflated speech in archaic language might end with a modern pinprick: "And so on, and so on!"2008, Susan F. Beegel, “Introduction”, in John Steinbeck, Cup of gold: a life of Sir Henry Morgan, buccaneer, page xx:
Synonyms of archaic
Forms of archaic
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | archaics |
| alternative form (archaic) | archaïc |
| alternative form (obsolete) | archaick |
| alternative hypercorrect (nonstandard, obsolete) | archaeic |
| alternative hypercorrect (nonstandard, obsolete) | archæic |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more archaic |
| superlative | most archaic |
Origin of archaic
From archaism (“ancient or obsolete phrase or expression”) or from French archaïque, ultimately from Ancient Greek ἀρχαϊκός (arkhaïkós, “old-fashioned”), from ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “from the beginning, antiquated, ancient, old”), from ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “beginning, origin”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to be first”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to begin”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin, rule, command”).
Words formed from archaic
Phrases with archaic
Questions about archaic
- What does archaic mean?
- Archaic means the prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘Paleo-Indian’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American‐paleolithic’, etc.) of human presence in the Western Hemisphere, and the most recent prehistoric period (‘Woodland’, etc.).
- What is archaic in Hindi?
- Archaic in Hindi is प्राचीन (prācīn), पुरातन (purātan). See Archaic meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use archaic in a sentence?
- Brann's compass of words, idioms and phrases harks back to the archaic and reaches forward to the futuristic.
- What part of speech is archaic?
- Archaic can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce archaic?
- Archaic is pronounced /ɑːˈkeɪ.ɪk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of archaic?
- The plural of archaic is archaics.
Words near archaic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: archaic (page history and authors); archaic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); archaic (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); আদিম (Bengali) (page history and authors); പുരാതനം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); archaic (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਪੁਰਾਣਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-archaic.ogg.
Cite this entry: “archaic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/archaic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.