caveman
Americannoun
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cavemen
plural
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a cave dweller, especially of the Stone Age.
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a man who behaves in a rough, primitive manner, especially toward women.
noun
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a man of the Palaeolithic age; cave dweller
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informal a man who is primitive or brutal in behaviour, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of caveman
First recorded in 1860–65
Explanation
In books or movies, a caveman is a character based on early prehistoric humans. Cavemen live in caves and hunt with simple weapons like rocks and clubs. You can also use caveman to refer to any crude and uncivilized guy — like your older brother who tries to impress dates with his belching skills. "The Flintstones" is a perfect example of a cartoon caveman stereotype—the characters live with dinosaurs and wear animal hides as clothing. In reality, the early humans who lived in caves and left behind Paleolithic cave paintings existed at a completely different time than dinosaurs. And scholars believe that most humans during this period lived in simple tents or other temporary structures.
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.
See Examples For:
But it’s also part of Netflix’s “rise and fall” true crime genre, cautioning against believing in figures like Johnson, who hooks young men by flogging a version of caveman masculinity that associates virility with dominance.
From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2025
"I gotta go into my cave and become a caveman," he told CBS news.
From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2024
That original “Ghosts,” with three seasons streaming on Max, features different but still recognizable archetypes: a caveman instead of a Viking; a World War II officer instead of a Revolutionary War soldier.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 20, 2023
And yet, here we are, in 2023, with two of history’s most famous technologists returning to the ultimate caveman activity: fighting.
From Slate ● Jun. 26, 2023
I just kinda held my arms straight and did the caveman walk to the stockroom, bumping into everything, including the stockroom door, hoping I'd make it there before my shoulders popped out the sockets.
From "Ghost" by Jason Reynolds
You can see that time-bending mash-up in the costumes, with some folks in bright plastic wigs and others in horns and mohawks and dreadlocks like 21st century cavemen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2025
Lyra commented how badly eclipses must have messed cavemen up.
From Slate ● Apr. 8, 2024
At which point, they had to come running toward the roo, bellowing and brandishing their golf clubs like cavemen on the fifth hole, just to get it to stop charging.
From Salon ● Nov. 13, 2023
"Readers can expect to meet characters ranging from cavemen to gnomes, wizards to ghosts, and read about time travel tourism, the haunting of Council offices, and a visitor from another planet," the publisher added.
From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2023
The war was as remote to her as cavemen and dinosaurs.
From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
