premodern

American  

[pree-mahd-ern] / ˌpriˈmɑd ərn /

adjective

1. of or relating to any period before the modern era.

2. of or relating to any present-day culture that has not adopted modern values, technology, etc.

3. (in the arts and philosophy) relating to or characteristic of the period before the dominance of modernism.

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noun

premoderns plural

1. a person who lived during a period before the modern era.

2. a person whose work in the arts or philosophy is characteristic of the period before the dominance of modernism.

Other Word Forms

• premodernism
  noun
• premodernist
  noun
• premodernity
  noun

Example Sentences

Inevitable are thoughts of ancient Stonehenge, or perhaps primordial cairns marking trails or burial grounds in premodern societies.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 17, 2025

This mimamoru approach has its roots in a premodern concept of nature, according to Professor Yosuke Hirota at the Graduate School of Literature and Human Sciences of Osaka Metropolitan University.

From Science Daily • Apr. 22, 2024

Cross-disciplinary collaboration between historians and paleo-scientists has yielded vital information about environmental change in the premodern world.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

Indeed, premodern Christians may have actively developed reproductive options for women, Salés found.

From Salon • Jun. 28, 2022

Especially in premodern times, most of the calories feeding an agricultural population came from a single crop—such as wheat, potatoes or rice—that lacks some of the vitamins, minerals and other nutritional materials humans need.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari