primeval

adjective

prī-ˈmē-vəl How to pronounce primeval (audio)
Definition of primevalnext
as in ancient
relating to or occurring near the beginning of a process, series, or time period primeval forests slowly disappearing as the climate changed

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of primeval The fragrance that wafts from the dish when the lid is lifted heightens the anticipation, the nose being the first point of entry and the most primeval of our senses. — Literary Hub, 4 Feb. 2026 The landscape of Rapa Nui probably never incorporated the sort of primeval forest of palm trees imagined in popular accounts, Pitts writes, but was more mixed, and scrubbier, with no one species of charismatic megaflora dominating. — Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 26 Jan. 2026 Astrophysicists now believe that this nebulous stuff is a stellar incubator; the primeval chaos from which star formation is presently underway. — Joe Rao, Space.com, 16 Jan. 2026 Instead, the franchise has been retooled for this brutal and bleak moment, further weaponizing desperation at a time when competition already feels omnipresent and almost primeval. — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 13 Jan. 2026 See All Example Sentences for primeval
Recent Examples of Synonyms for primeval
  1. ancient
  2. primitive
  3. primal
  4. prehistoric
  5. primordial
  6. early
Adjective
  • After becoming a daily fixture in the 1990s, blackouts have worsened since 2024, when Cuba’s ancient power grid began to collapse and Soviet-era electrical stations began failing more frequently.
    — Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald, 31 Aug. 2026
  • Its towering basalt cliffs formed as ancient volcanic rock cooled and fractured.
    — Sarah Kingdom, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026
Definition of ancient
Adjective
  • Between these spaces exists a world balanced on the edge of the modern and the primitive, the high-tech and the rural, the corporeal and the mythic.
    — Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 31 Aug. 2026
  • When the Followers began, healthcare on the Western frontier was primitive, unsanitary and riddled with con artists peddling fake cures.
    — Audrey Dutton, ProPublica, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of primitive
Adjective
  • Cynically or not, Chin and Vasarhelyi understand that these primal thrills are enough to distract us from the frustrating and sorrowful truth at the center of the story.
    — Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2026
  • Animals could offer liberatory models to throw off bourgeois conventions, returning Surrealists to primal ways of being.
    — Kelly Presutti, ARTnews.com, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of primal
Adjective
  • Another, Undine kommt (Undine Comes), 2025, has its head in profile with a frontal eye, evoking the conventions of ancient Egyptian art and prehistoric female figurines, motifs that permeate Stötzer’s drawings, writings, and costumes.
    — Elisa R. Linn, Artforum, 1 Sep. 2026
  • Beyond art, Griffin has also been a major buyer of important documents and prehistoric fossils.
    — Maximilíano Durón, ARTnews.com, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of prehistoric
Adjective
  • Dark stars are hypothetical primordial stars that, rather than producing energy through nuclear fusion, are instead powered by self-annihilating dark matter within their cores.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 21 Aug. 2026
  • Their results recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters signal a major breakthrough in quantum physics—one that indicates a primordial quark-gluon plasma soup is actually possible with lighter ingredients.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of primordial
Adjective
  • The extremely small separation between the two graphene systems allowed the screening effect to be much stronger than in earlier experiments.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 5 Sep. 2026
  • Prosecutors say Castro briefly struggled with Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, then fired through a front door into an occupied home, hitting him in the leg, contradicting earlier federal accounts.
    — Valerie Gonzalez, Los Angeles Times, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of early

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primes
primeval
priming
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Cite this Entry

“Primeval.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/primeval. Accessed 7 Sep. 2026.

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