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 outdated; passé.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.
“This is a TV screen, but right now, no one’s making television for it,” he says, pointing to his phone and referring to the prehistoric era of late 2022.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 12, 2026
Other affected UNESCO-listed sites include Chehel Sotoun Palace and the Masjed-e Jame mosque in Isfahan, as well as the prehistoric sites of the Khorramabad Valley.
From Barron's • May 10, 2026
Dr. David Schwimmer, a leading authority on the massive North American crocodilian genus Deinosuchus and a geology professor at Columbus State University, has helped bring a prehistoric giant back to life.
From Science Daily • Apr. 15, 2026
The University of Aberdeen will now lead a larger five-year exploration of the site, which archaeologists hope could reveal "a great deal about our early prehistoric forebears".
From BBC • Apr. 15, 2026
In places where they were already numerous or where geography retarded immigration by food producers, local hunter-gatherers did have time to adopt farming in prehistoric times and thus to survive as farmers.
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.
