Word.ws English Dictionary

Cro-Magnon

UK/kroʊˈmænjən/US/kroʊˈmænjən/

Cro-Magnon proper noun: the rock shelter in Les Eyzies, France, where the first Cro-Magnon Man specimens were found.

Proper noun

Cro-Magnon

  1. The rock shelter in Les Eyzies, France, where the first Cro-Magnon Man specimens were found.

Noun

Cro-Magnon (plural Cro-Magnons or Cro-Magnon)

  1. The earliest known form of modern human (Homo sapiens) in Europe, dating from the late Paleolithic.
    • The Cro-Magnons may have been one important step beyond the Neanderthals in social organization.[…]That the Cro-Magnons and the Neanderthals encountered each other is probable. There seems to be no more than a five-thousand-year interval between the general occupation of home sites by the...1994, Seymour W. Itzkoff, The Decline of Intelligence in America: A Strategy for National Renewal, Greenwood Publishing Group (Praeger Publishers), page 14
    • The Cro Magnon came to live in Europe around forty thousand years ago and most educated people have heard of them. The Cro Magnon are the ones who created the remarkable cave paintings found in southern France and Spain at Lascaux and Altamira.2006, Lyndall Baker Landauer, The Learning Pool: Basic Science Everyone Needs to Know, Xlibris, page 85
  2. (derogatory) A backward and stupid person, a knuckle-dragger or troglodyte.

Examples of Cro-Magnon in a sentence

  • The Cro-Magnons may have been one important step beyond the Neanderthals in social organization.[…]That the Cro-Magnons and the Neanderthals encountered each other is probable.1994, Seymour W. Itzkoff, The Decline of Intelligence in America: A Strategy for National Renewal, Greenwood Publishing Group (Praeger...
  • In addition, the latest evidence suggests that the "agricultural revolution" occurred sometime during the second half of the Cro-Magnon era.2009, Anthony Scioli, Henry B. Biller, Hope in the Age of Anxiety, Oxford University Press, page 44:

Synonyms of Cro-Magnon

Forms of Cro-Magnon

pluralCro-Magnons
pluralCro-Magnon

Origin of Cro-Magnon

From French Cro-Magnon, from Occitan Cròs-Manhon. Named after Abri de Cro-Magnon, a rock shelter in the commune of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, Dordogne, France, where the first skeletons were found in 1868.

Phrases with Cro-Magnon

Questions about Cro-Magnon

What does Cro-Magnon mean?
Cro-Magnon means the rock shelter in Les Eyzies, France, where the first Cro-Magnon Man specimens were found.
How do you use Cro-Magnon in a sentence?
The Cro-Magnons may have been one important step beyond the Neanderthals in social organization.[…]That the Cro-Magnons and the Neanderthals encountered each other is probable.
What part of speech is Cro-Magnon?
Cro-Magnon can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Cro-Magnon?
Cro-Magnon is pronounced /kroʊˈmænjən/ (UK).

Words near Cro-Magnon in the dictionary

  1. cro
  2. Cro-Magnard
  3. Cro-Magnards
  4. Cro-Magnid
  5. Cro-Magnoid
  6. Cro-Magnon
  7. Cro-Magnon Man
  8. Cro-Magnon Men
  9. Cro-Magnons
  10. croagh
  11. croaghs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Cro-Magnon (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: “Cro-Magnon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cro-magnon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.