Word.ws English Dictionary

Solutrean

/səˈlu.tɹi.ən/

Solutrean proper noun: one of the final stages of the Paleolithic, c. 22000–17000 BCE.

Proper noun

Solutrean

  1. One of the final stages of the Paleolithic, c. 22000–17000 BCE.

Adjective

Solutrean (not comparable)

  1. Of or pertaining to the Solutrean.
  2. Of or pertaining to the Solutrean material culture or the Solutrean hypothesis.
    • Childbirth was only suggested by these features in the Solutrean culture, but now all is made definite and explicit as she is shown seated upon the leopard throne with the divine child emerging between her legs.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 140
    • Solutrean points resemble the canines of the sabre-toothed cats.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History

Noun

Solutrean (plural Solutreans)

  1. A member of a hypothetical Paleolithic people who migrated from Europe to North America in the context of the widely rejected Solutrean hypothesis.
    • It was deemed the explorers would have originated in Spain, France and Portugal. They must have traveled along the ice sheets in animal-skin boats, simlar to those of the the Inuits. These tribes, called Solutreans, settled in at least five separate regions surrounding Chesapeake Bay.2018 Historically Speaking: The Solutrean Migration

Forms of Solutrean

pluralSolutreans

Origin of Solutrean

From French Solutréen, named in 1872 by Gabriel de Mortillet after a prehistoric site situated by the Rock of Solutré.

Questions about Solutrean

What does Solutrean mean?
Solutrean means one of the final stages of the Paleolithic, c. 22000–17000 BCE.
What part of speech is Solutrean?
Solutrean can be a proper noun, an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce Solutrean?
Solutrean is pronounced /səˈlu.tɹi.ən/.

Words near Solutrean in the dictionary

  1. solutions
  2. solutions in search of a problem
  3. solutions in search of problems
  4. solutive
  5. solutives
  6. Solutrean
  7. Solutreans
  8. Solva
  9. solvabilities
  10. solvability
  11. solvable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Solutrean (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Solutrean.wav.

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