Word.ws English Dictionary

atavist

atavist noun: a genetic characteristic emerging after an absence from several generations.

Noun

atavist (plural atavists)

  1. A genetic characteristic emerging after an absence from several generations.
  2. A person of atavistic beliefs or habits.

Forms of atavist

pluralatavists

Words formed from atavist

Questions about atavist

What does atavist mean?
Atavist means a genetic characteristic emerging after an absence from several generations.
What part of speech is atavist?
Atavist is a noun.
What is the plural of atavist?
The plural of atavist is atavists.

Words near atavist in the dictionary

  1. ataurique
  2. atavaquone
  3. atavic
  4. atavism
  5. atavisms
  6. atavist
  7. atavistic
  8. atavistical
  9. atavistically
  10. atavists
  11. ataxaphasia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: atavist (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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Cite this entry: “atavist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/atavist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.