pre-Columbian
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of pre-Columbian
First recorded in 1885–90
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.
A case in point is the Inca Road, arguably the greatest infrastructure accomplishment of pre-Columbian times.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 10, 2025
Mexican anthropologist and sculptor Francisco Cornejo assisted the architects to craft a building that was based on authentic designs of pre-Columbian American societies.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 14, 2025
"Such intensive investments in the landscape may have led ultimately to the development of the complex society characteristic of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, which subsequently occurred in this area by around 1200 BCE."
From Science Daily • Nov. 22, 2024
Beginning in the 1500s, he said, “Spanish missionaries became deeply familiar with pre-Columbian traditions in an effort to combat them and convert local populations,” and practices such as amate production were discouraged or even banned.
From New York Times • Apr. 11, 2024
If recent reappraisals of the pre-Columbian New World population are correct, it was not far below the contemporary population of Eurasia.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
