Synonyms

atavistic

American

[at-uh-vis-tik] / ˌæt əˈvɪs tɪk /

adjective

of, relating to, or characterized by atavism; reverting to or suggesting the characteristics of a remote ancestor or primitive type.

atavistic Scientific

/ ăt′ə-vĭs′tĭk /

Relating to an inherited trait that reappears in an individual after being absent from a strain of organism for several generations. Atavistic traits were formerly thought to be throwbacks to ancestral types but are now known to be due to the inheritance of a pair of recessive genes.

Other Word Forms

atavistically adverb

Etymology

Origin of atavistic

First recorded in 1870–75; atav(ism) + -istic

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Tribal pull isn’t the brain’s only atavistic trait that struggles with modern life.

From The Wall Street Journal

“Parade,” which delves into antisemitism, systemic bias in our judicial system and the power of a wily demagogue to stoke atavistic hatred for self-gain, has a disconcerting timeliness.

From Los Angeles Times

Yet that does nothing to diminish the totemic power they wield over us, which is an expression of the unquestioned, atavistic nature of belief.

From New York Times

There are plenty of remote places here from which to take in the atavistic spectacle: a sublime, disquieting experience, full of renewal and destruction, that shatters one’s sense of magnitude.

From New York Times

Actually, as fashionable as Mekas’s film once was it has an atavistic quality.

From New York Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023