prehistoric
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to the time or a period prior to recorded history.
The dinosaur is a prehistoric beast.
-
Slang. outdated; passé.
My mom has these prehistoric ideas about proper dress.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of prehistoric
Explanation
If while hiking, you see strange painting on a cliff, it may be rock art from prehistoric times, meaning something from the time before history was recorded. When you break down the word prehistoric, it’s easy to figure out what it means. The prefix pre-, means “before” and historic relates to something from a past culture. Put the two together, and you get prehistoric, a word that describes something that comes from a time before history was recorded. For example, Stonehenge is a prehistoric site, or the woolly mammoth is a prehistoric beast.
Vocabulary lists containing prehistoric
World Without Fish
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Earth Science - Middle School
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Earth Science: Geology
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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.
The section “Skeletal Embodiment,” in which all the featured garments and objects are shades of bleached bone, blanched coral and fossil gray, is simultaneously prehistoric and futuristic—a realm of deep time in both directions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
"This tells us prehistoric people placed real importance on the landscape itself. It wasn't just about convenience -- the location the stones came from likely held meaning for them."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 9, 2026
The National Museum alone lost almost two-thirds of its inventory, comprising nearly 100,000 artifacts that covered Sudan’s prehistoric age through its Nubian era, the Kingdom of Kush, the Christian era and its Islamic period.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Dorothea Bate, who died in 1951 aged 72, "transformed our understanding of prehistoric animals and ancient environments" through her research, Historic England said.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
Later, when Moody saw the finished photos, he thought at first that Pearl looked like a delicate fossil, something caught for millennia in the skeleton belly of a prehistoric beast.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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.
