Word.ws English Dictionary

troglodyte

UK/ˈtɹɒɡlədaɪt//ˈtɹɑɡlədaɪt/

troglodyte noun: a member of a supposed prehistoric race that lived in caves or holes, a caveman.

Noun

troglodyte (plural troglodytes)

  1. A member of a supposed prehistoric race that lived in caves or holes, a caveman.
  2. (broadly) Anything that lives underground.
    • The cave was populated by albino scorpions, blind salamanders, and other troglodytes.
    • Inhabited as early as the Gallo-Roman era, the caves of the troglodytes are slighted in guidebooks, naturally overshadowed by the chateaus of the kings.1997 September 11, Josephine Humphreys, “The Loire Valley, Land of Kings and Troglodytes”, in The New York Times Style Magazine
  3. The Eurasian wren, Troglodytes troglodytes.
  4. (derogatory) A reclusive, reactionary or out-of-date person, especially if brutish.
    • Blair brought out the febrile intensity of Stanhope, wiring himself into his ever more circumscribed troglodyte world, speculating moodily on the worm that went down when it thought it was coming up. Robert Philp thought Blair's ...2013, John Rentoul, Tony Blair: Prime Minister, Faber & Faber, →ISBN
  5. A person who chooses not to keep up to date with the latest software and hardware.

troglodyte meaning in Tamil

troglodyte in Tamil

குகை வாழ்நர், கொடுமைக் குணம்

Forms of troglodyte

pluraltroglodytes

Origin of troglodyte

Learned borrowing from Latin Trōglodytae (“cave-dwelling people”), from Ancient Greek τρωγλοδύτης (trōglodútēs, “one who dwells in holes”), from τρώγλη (trṓglē, “hole”) + δύω (dúō, “to get into”).

Words formed from troglodyte

Questions about troglodyte

What does troglodyte mean?
Troglodyte means a member of a supposed prehistoric race that lived in caves or holes, a caveman.
What is troglodyte in Tamil?
Troglodyte in Tamil is குகை வாழ்நர், கொடுமைக் குணம். See Troglodyte meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is troglodyte?
Troglodyte is a noun.
How do you pronounce troglodyte?
Troglodyte is pronounced /ˈtɹɒɡlədaɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of troglodyte?
The plural of troglodyte is troglodytes.

Words near troglodyte in the dictionary

  1. troglobite
  2. troglobites
  3. troglobitic
  4. trogloditic
  5. troglodytal
  6. troglodyte
  7. troglodytes
  8. troglodytian
  9. troglodytic
  10. troglodytical
  11. troglodytically

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: troglodyte (page history and authors); troglodyte (Tamil Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-troglodyte.ogg.

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