semicivilized

American  

[sem-ee-siv-uh-lahyzd, sem-ahy-] / ˌsɛm iˈsɪv əˌlaɪzd, ˌsɛm aɪ- /

adjective

1. half or partly civilized.

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Other Word Forms

• semicivilization noun

Etymology

Origin of semicivilized

First recorded in 1830–40; semi- + civilized

Example Sentences

The city was nothing more than a semicivilized settlement of little, flat‑topped stone houses.

From The Fire People by Cummings, Ray

The strict regard paid to the position relative to the cardinal points by savage and semicivilized people is too well known to require any proof here.

From Day Symbols of the Maya Year Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1894-1895, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897, pages 199-266. by Thomas, Cyrus