Word.ws English Dictionary

precivilization

precivilization noun: the time prior to civilization.

Noun

precivilization (uncountable)

  1. The time prior to civilization.
    • In “Benguelê” (which refers to slaves’ nostalgic longing for Africa) he makes extensive use of crouching, stooped bodies in a simian, loping walk, arms hanging loosely and head down to suggest tribal dances, rituals, animals, a precivilization.2008 March 27, Roslyn Sulcas, “Exotica of Brazil in Motion”, in New York Times

Origin of precivilization

From pre- + civilization.

Questions about precivilization

What does precivilization mean?
Precivilization means the time prior to civilization.
What part of speech is precivilization?
Precivilization is a noun.

Words near precivilization in the dictionary

  1. precisionizing
  2. precisions
  3. precisive
  4. precited
  5. precivilisation
  6. precivilization
  7. precivilized
  8. precladistic
  9. preclaim
  10. preclair
  11. preclamol

Source and license

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