primal
/ˈpɹaɪməl/
primal adjective: being the first in time or in history.
Adjective
primal (not comparable)
- Being the first in time or in history.
- primal man
- Synonyms:
- aboriginal, primaeval, primeval, primordial
- Of greatest importance; primary.
- The most primal motion of all, of course, is vertical—a steady eternal fall into the infinity of space; speed cannot be ascribed to them, since, given the infinity of space and the absolute steadiness of the fall, no [relative] standard for it exists at all.1870, Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche: The Preplatonic Philosophers, page 127
- “We don’t know what life is. We do know what death is. It is change of habitat of ghost. I wish we had some sepate or house of bishops to tabulate these concepts. The law of togetherness and apartness is the most primal concept of life, Hence a crystal belongs as legitimately to the sphere of life...1873, The Lancet 1873: Issue 2625, Elsevier Limited, page 882
- Synonyms:
- primary
- Being one of the pieces of meat initially separated from the carcass during butchering, prior to division into smaller cuts.
Noun
primal (plural primals)
Verb
primal (third-person singular simple present primals, present participle (US) primaling or (UK) primalling, simple past and past participle (US) primaled or (UK) primalled)
- To take part in primal therapy.
- One of my patients told me of an acquaintance who primaled in the shopping center. Janov described a patient who primaled on the tennis court. Apparently, once initiated, patients primal in any place at any time for the rest of their lives.1979, The Journal of Orgonomy, volume 13, number 1, page 108
- Primaling on the infant level seems so genuinely babyish that the unsophisticated observer may mistake it for psychotic behavior.1982, Lawrence Edwin Abt, Irving R. Stuart, The Newer Therapies: A Sourcebook, page 369
primal meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
primal in Hindi
- प्राइमल
primal in Tamil
- முக்கியமான மூலாதாரமான, முதன்மம், முதன்மை
primal in Marathi
- प्रायमल
primal in Urdu
- اصلی, ابتدائی
More languagesFewer languages
- primal in Bengali
- মূল, আদিম
- primal in Telugu
- ప్రైమల్
- primal in Malayalam
- മൗലികമായ, പ്രാഥമികമായ, പ്രാകൃതികമായ, മുഖ്യമായ
- primal in Kannada
- ಪ್ರೈಮಲ್
- primal in Punjabi
- ਪ੍ਰਾਈਮਲ, ਪ੍ਰਾਇਮਲ
- primal in Gujarati
- પ્રાઈમલ, પ્રાઇમલ
- primal in Odia
- ପ୍ରାଇମାଲ, ପ୍ରାଇମଲ୍, ପ୍ରାଇମଲ
- primal in Nepali
- प्राइमल
Examples of primal in a sentence
- Two subtypes of primal nature need to be distinguished: naturogenic and anthropogenic.
- This notion also associates the vampire more directly with the primal uncanny.
- God pronounce his ineffable name, and Manred, the primal substance of the Universe, was formed.
Synonyms of primal
Forms of primal
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | primals |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | primals |
| present participle US | primaling |
| present participle UK | primalling |
| past participle US | primaled |
| past US | primaled |
| past participle UK | primalled |
| past UK | primalled |
Origin of primal
Probably partly from Medieval Latin prīmālis, from Latin prīmus (“first”) + -ālis, and partly from prime + -al.
Words formed from primal
Phrases with primal
Questions about primal
- What does primal mean?
- Primal means being the first in time or in history.
- What is primal in Hindi?
- Primal in Hindi is प्राइमल. See Primal meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is primal?
- Primal can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce primal?
- Primal is pronounced /ˈpɹaɪməl/.
Words near primal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: primal (page history and authors); primal (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primal (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); primal (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primal (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); primal (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); primal (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primal (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); primal (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primal (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primal (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primal (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primal (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-primal.wav.
Cite this entry: “primal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/primal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.