prehistory

noun pre·his·to·ry \ ˌprē-ˈhi-st(ə-)rē \

|Updated on: 8 Jul 2018

Examples: prehistory in a Sentence

Definition of prehistory

1 : the study of prehistoric humankind

2 : a history of the antecedents of an event, situation, or thing

3 : the prehistoric period of human evolution

See prehistory defined for English-language learners

See prehistory defined for kids

Examples of prehistory in a Sentence

We are learning about the prehistory of North America.

Recent Examples of prehistory from the Web

This three-pronged mixture of indigenous hunter-gatherers, early farmers, and a later wave of migrants parallels the prehistory of Europe, also illuminated by ancient DNA in recent years.

— lizzie wade, Science | AAAS, "How rice farming may have spread across the ancient world," 17 May 2018
This phenomenon has been observed since ancient times and may be one of the earliest astronomical observations in human prehistory.

— tom metcalfe /, NBC News, "What is the summer solstice?," 20 June 2018
Join an expert prehistory guide, an author and authority on the Cro Magnon sites of the region, to visit Rouffignac, Font de Gaume, Abri Cap Blanc, Lascaux II [worth noting that some of these need to be booked months in advance].

— jack dancy, Town & Country, "How to Plan a Trip to Europe," 5 Oct. 2016
And the lab refrigerators are filled with bones from 2,000 more denizens of prehistory.

— carl zimmer, New York Times, "David Reich Unearths Human History Etched in Bone," 20 Mar. 2018
For art mavens, desert road-trippers, and anyone interested in the sorts of prehistory-referencing spiritual ceremonies popularized by Burning Man, Stone Circle will soon become a landmark on the West Texas tourist circuit.

— michael agresta, WIRED, "Marfa, Texas Is Getting Its Own Solar-Powered Stonehenge," 16 May 2018
One of the teams was led by Eske Willerslev, a geneticist at the University of Copenhagen who has helped revolutionize our understanding of human prehistory by collecting DNA from age-old skeletons.

— carl zimmer, New York Times, "In Ancient Skeletons, Scientists Discover a Modern Foe: Hepatitis B," 9 May 2018
The millions who live in these cities, though, know that there’s a whole prehistory to their modernist urban experiments.

— jason farago, New York Times, "How Latin America Was Built, Before Modernism Came Along," 18 Apr. 2018
This tragic prehistory re-emerged in the novel, which depicts the perils of parenthood and a creature that destroys its progenitor.

— The Economist, "Frankenstein: the monster that never dies," 17 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'prehistory.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of prehistory

1871

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

Other Anthropology Terms

ectomorph, ethnography, yurt

PREHISTORY Defined for English Language Learners

prehistory

noun

Definition of prehistory for English Language Learners

: the period of time in the past before people could write : the time before history was written down
: the time and events that came before and led to the development of something