Word.ws English Dictionary

neanderthal

UK/niːˈæn.dəˌtɑːl//niˈæn.dɚˌθɑl/

neanderthal is the alternative letter-case form of Neanderthal.

Adjective capitalized: Neanderthal

Neanderthal (not comparable)

  1. Of or pertaining to Homo neanderthalensis.
    • The capacity of the Neanderthal skull was 10% larger than that of modern humans.
    • […]In short, many assessments conclude that East Asians have more Neanderthal ancestry than Europeans, who have more Neanderthal ancestry than people in the Middle East.2019, Razib Khan, Arabia between Africa and Eurasia
  2. (broadly, derogatory) Old-fashioned, opposed to change.
  3. (broadly, derogatory) Primitive, savage or uncivilized.
  4. Of or pertaining to the Neander Valley in Germany.

Noun capitalized: Neanderthal

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.

Synonyms of neanderthal

Forms of neanderthal

Noun
pluralneanderthals
pluralNeanderthals
Adjective
alternative formneanderthal
alternative formNeandertal

Origin of neanderthal

From obsolete German Neanderthal, now spelled Neandertal, the name of a valley (German Tal, older also spelled Thal) near Düsseldorf where the first Neanderthal was discovered in 1856. A hollow near the valley was known as Neanderhöhle (“Neander Hollow”) and Neandershöhle (“Neander’s Hollow”) in the early 19th century, and the valley had been renamed to Neanderthal in 1850, in honour of the German Calvinist theologian and hymn writer Joachim Neander (1650–1680). Before, the valley was known as das Gesteins (literally “The Rocks [sg.]”) and Hundsklipp (literally “Dog Cliff”). The name of Joachim Neander is based on the Ancient Greek translation (νέος (néos) + ᾰ̓νήρ (ănḗr)) of his original surname Neumann (“Newman”). The pronunciation with the "th" sound (/θ/) is a spelling pronunciation; the original German word is pronounced with a "t" sound (/t/).

Words formed from neanderthal

Questions about neanderthal

What does neanderthal mean?
Neanderthal means of or pertaining to Homo neanderthalensis.
What is neanderthal the alternative letter-case form of?
Neanderthal is the alternative letter-case form of Neanderthal.
What part of speech is neanderthal?
Neanderthal can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce neanderthal?
Neanderthal is pronounced /niːˈæn.dəˌtɑːl/ (UK).

Words near neanderthal in the dictionary

  1. Neandersovans
  2. Neandertal
  3. Neandertaler
  4. Neandertalers
  5. Neandertals
  6. neanderthal
  7. Neanderthaler
  8. Neanderthalers
  9. Neanderthalian
  10. Neanderthalians
  11. Neanderthalic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: neanderthal (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-neanderthal.ogg.

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