Word.ws English Dictionary

Neandertal

Neandertal is the alternative spelling of Neanderthal.

Meaning of Neanderthal

Noun

Neanderthal (plural Neanderthals)

  1. A specimen of the now extinct species Homo neanderthalensis.
    • These injuries may reflect the rigors of hunting with the Neanderthals' limited repertoire of weapons; the Neanderthals never seem to have developed projectiles, so they would have to have gotten more or less on top of their prey in order to kill them.2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, pages 250–251
  2. (derogatory) A primitive, savage or uncivilized person.
  3. (derogatory, ethnic, slur) A white person.

See all 7 meanings of neanderthal

Forms of Neandertal

pluralNeandertals

Questions about Neandertal

What is Neandertal the alternative spelling of?
Neandertal is the alternative spelling of Neanderthal.

Words near Neandertal in the dictionary

  1. Neamț
  2. Neander
  3. Neanders
  4. Neandersovan
  5. Neandersovans
  6. Neandertal
  7. Neandertaler
  8. Neandertalers
  9. Neandertals
  10. neanderthal
  11. Neanderthaler

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Neandertal (page history and authors); Neanderthal (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: “Neandertal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/neandertal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.