Word.ws English Dictionary

preliterature

preliterature adjective: before the development of literature.

Adjective

preliterature (not comparable)

  1. Before the development of literature.
    • She also reminds us that in contrast to preliterature societies, the industrial societies have a distinct lack of rituals involving the sense of smell.1993, Charles S. Van Toller, G. H. Dodd, Fragrance: The psychology and biology of perfume, page 1
    Synonyms:
    preliterary

Noun

preliterature (uncountable)

  1. Forms of art etc. that existed before literature.
    • The notion of passion as a fire is ancient, its origins lost in preliterature.1981, Erling B. Holtsmark, Tarzan and Tradition: Classical Myth in Popular Literature, page 140

Synonyms of preliterature

Origin of preliterature

From pre- + literature.

Questions about preliterature

What does preliterature mean?
Preliterature means before the development of literature.
What part of speech is preliterature?
Preliterature can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near preliterature in the dictionary

  1. prelit
  2. preliteracy
  3. preliterary
  4. preliterate
  5. preliterates
  6. preliterature
  7. prelitigation
  8. prelitter
  9. prelittered
  10. prelittering
  11. prelitters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: preliterature (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.

Last updated:

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