primitive
Syllables: prim·i·tive/ˈpɹɪmɪtɪv/
primitive noun: an original or primary word; a word not derived from another, as opposed to derivative.
Noun
primitive (plural primitives)
- An original or primary word; a word not derived from another, as opposed to derivative.
- Synonyms:
- primitive word, radical, radical word
- A member of a primitive society.
- Primitive or primeval nature; the innate, instinctive element within a person; the deep, instinctive, precultural layer of human nature.
- It may be that, living among primitive surroundings, the dormant primitive deep within the white man is drawn towards the absolute primitive in the aboriginal.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 54
- Natural or premodern environment or conditions; life lacking modern technology and society.
- Out there in the primitive, white-man Rust had made his tools out of the primitive, as these stone-age people were making excellent string from the primitive.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 113
- A simple-minded person.
- A data type that is built into the programming language, as opposed to more complex structures.
- Any of the simplest elements (instructions, statements, etc.) available in a programming language.
- A write-what-where primitive allows the attacker to write arbitrary data wherever they want in the memory2021, Arti Noor, Abhijit Sen, Gaurav Trivedi, Proceedings of Emerging Trends and Technologies on Intelligent Systems: ETTIS 2021, page 26
- A basic geometric shape from which more complex shapes can be constructed.
- A function whose derivative is a given function; an antiderivative.
Adjective
primitive (comparative more primitive, superlative most primitive)
- Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times; original; primordial; primeval; first.
- primitive innocence; the primitive church
- it is from such primitive beings that the highest organisms now extant are the marvellously developed descendants1895, Edmund Montgomery, “To Be Alive, What is it?”, in The Monist
- Of or pertaining to or harking back to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity.
- a primitive style of dress
- By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.1921, Ben Travers, chapter 4, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC
- Relating to an art style characterized by asymmetrical shapes and faded colors.
- I used primitive hearts to decorate the quilt.
- Crude, obsolete.
- primitive ideas
- Synonyms:
- rudimentary, undeveloped, antiquated, outworn, crude, garagelike, rough, rude, rudimental, unrefined
- Original; primary; radical; not derived.
- a primitive verb
- The primitive root in "children" is "child."
- Synonyms:
- radical
- Antonyms:
- derivative, derived
- Occurring in or characteristic of an early stage of development or evolution.
- Not derived from another of the same type
- Synonyms:
- imprimitive
- most recent common ancestor (often hypothetical) of
- We infer that other groups of related languages, such as the Germanic (or the Slavic or the Celtic), which show a similar resemblance, have arisen in the same way; it is only an accident of history that for these groups we have no written records of the earlier state of the language, as it was...1933, Leonard Bloomfield, Language, Henry Holt, page 13
- Synonyms:
- proto-
primitive meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
primitive in Hindi
- primitive, ancient
- आदि ādi
primitive in Tamil
- முதனிலை, ஆதியான, மூலமான, தொன்மையான, பண்டைய, புராதன
primitive in Marathi
- आदिम
primitive in Urdu
- اصلی, ابتدائی, ناتراشیدہ, قدیم
More languagesFewer languages
- primitive in Bengali
- আদিম, প্রাচীন
- primitive in Telugu
- ఆదిమ
- primitive in Malayalam
- പ്രാകൃത prākr̥ta
- primitive in Kannada
- ಮೊತ್ತ ಮೊದಲಿನ, ಒರಟು, ಪೊಳಲಿಗನಲ್ಲದ, ಹಳೆಯ ತರಹದ
- primitive in Punjabi
- ਪ੍ਰਾਚੀਨ prācīn
- primitive in Gujarati
- આદિમ
- primitive in Sanskrit
- आदिम ādima, युक्त yuktá
- primitive in Arabic
- بدائي bidaʔiyy
Examples of primitive in a sentence
- "The cranium is clearly plesiomorphic in overall form, presenting primitive traits shared by earlier hominins," the authors wrote.2025 September 27, Julia Jacobo, “Million-year-old skull could rewrite timeline of human origin, researchers say”, in ABC News, archived...
- The intermediate stations were of the most primitive type.1951 August, “The Why and the Wherefore: The West Sussex Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 573:
- It could be said that the history of religions—from the most primitive to the most highly developed—is constituted by a great number of hierophanies, by manifestations of sacred realities.1959, Mircea Eliade, “Introduction”, in Willard R. Trask, transl., The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (Harvest Book; HB...
- To these unrecorded languages we give names like Primitive Germanic (Primitive Slavic, Primitive Celtic, and so on).1933, Leonard Bloomfield, Language, Henry Holt, page 13:
Synonyms of primitive
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of primitive
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | primitives |
| alternative form (obsolete) | primative |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more primitive |
| superlative | most primitive |
Origin of primitive
From Middle English primitif, from Old French primitif, from Latin prīmitīvus (“first or earliest of its kind”), from prīmus (“first”); see prime. Doublet of primitivo.
Words formed from primitive
- modern primitive
- AADAOPA
- multiprimitive
- neoprimitive
- neoprimitivist
- nonprimitive
- preprimitive
- primitive accumulation
- primitive art
- primitive colour
- primitive concept
- primitive element
- Primitive Irish
- primitively
- primitiveness
- primitive notion
- primitive polynomial
- primitive recursion
- primitive recursive
- primitive reflex
- primitive root
- primitive streak
- primitive type
- primitive wrapper class
- primitivism
- primitivist
- primitivistic
- primitivity
- primitivize
- quasiprimitive
- semiprimitive
- ultraprimitive
- unprimitive
Phrases with primitive
- primitive roots
- primitive types
- Primitive Baptist
- primitive colours
- primitive notions
- primitive streaks
- primitive concepts
- primitive elements
- primitive reflexes
- Primitive Methodist
- Primitive Methodists
- primitive polynomials
1 more phrasesFewer phrases
Questions about primitive
- What does primitive mean?
- Primitive means an original or primary word; a word not derived from another, as opposed to derivative.
- What is primitive in Hindi?
- Primitive in Hindi is आदि (ādi). See Primitive meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use primitive in a sentence?
- "The cranium is clearly plesiomorphic in overall form, presenting primitive traits shared by earlier hominins," the authors wrote.
- What part of speech is primitive?
- Primitive can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce primitive?
- Primitive is pronounced /ˈpɹɪmɪtɪv/.
- What is the plural of primitive?
- The plural of primitive is primitives.
Words near primitive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: primitive (page history and authors); आदि (Hindi) (page history and authors); primitive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); primitive (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primitive (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Primitive (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); primitive (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); പ്രാകൃത (Malayalam) (page history and authors); primitive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਪ੍ਰਾਚੀਨ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); primitive (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); आदिम (Sanskrit) (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-primitive.ogg.
Cite this entry: “primitive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/primitive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.