primordial

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adjective pri·mor·di·al \ prī-ˈmȯr-dē-əl \

Definition of primordial

1 a :first created or developed :primeval 1

b :existing in or persisting from the beginning (as of a solar system or universe)

a primordial gas cloud

c :earliest formed in the growth of an individual or organ :primitive

primordial cells

2 :fundamental, primary

primordial human joys
—Sir Winston Churchill

—

primordially

play \-dē-ə-lē\ adverb

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Examples of primordial in a Sentence

all life on Earth supposedly came from a primordial ooze in existence many millions of years ago

Recent Examples of primordial from the Web

The second feature is that primordial black holes were present early in the Universe's history.

— john timmer, Ars Technica, "Hypothetical black holes could be eating neutron stars," 10 Aug. 2017
This primordial entity is the most powerful being in existence.

— darcel rockett, chicagotribune.com, "'Supernatural' spinoffs we'd love to see," 11 July 2017
Plath’s interest in her visual life went beyond some primordial notion of selfie culture.

— julia felsenthal, Vogue, "The Lighter Side of Sylvia Plath," 30 June 2017
Every cubic centimeter of space averages roughly 350 primordial neutrinos lingering from the big bang, and every second, the sun sends trillions of higher-energy neutrinos streaming through each of us.

— adrian cho, Science | AAAS, "Weighing the universe's most elusive particle," 29 June 2017
This is a very contemporary event despite its primordial character.

— vidhi doshi, Washington Post, "Modi finally speaks out against lynchings of ‘beef eaters’," 29 June 2017
Since the Fairfax site does have the petroleum byproduct, fossils found there will land at the Tar Pits Museum, but only after the laborious process of extracting and ridding them of the primordial black goo.

— matthew segal, Los Angeles Magazine, "La Brea Tar Pits Museum Bracing for a Flood of Fossils This Summer," 26 June 2017
In the late 19th century he was released from his primordial prison and has reigned intermittently ever since.

— carol ann davidson, idahostatesman, "Wellness springs eternal in Calistoga, Calif.," 2 June 2017
At a TEDx talk in 2012, Friedman likened the seasteading movement to the Cambrian Explosion—a moment in evolutionary history when the globs and mollusks of the primordial soup gave way to a diverse array of complex organisms.

— rachel riederer, New Republic, "Libertarians Seek a Home on the High Seas," 29 May 2017

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

Did You Know?

The history of "primordial" began when the Latin words primus (meaning "first") and "ordiri" (meaning "to begin") came together to form "primordium," the Latin word for "origin." When it entered English in the 14th century, "primordial" was used in the general sense "primeval." Early on, there were hints that "primordial" would lend itself well to discussions of the earth's origins. Take, for instance, this passage from a 1398 translation of an encyclopedia called On the Properties of Things: "The virtu of God made primordial mater, in the whiche as it were in massy thinge the foure elementis were . . . nought distinguishd." Nowadays, primordial matter is often referred to in evolutionary theory as "primordial soup," a mixture of organic molecules from which life on earth originated.