1
as in losers
a big clumsy often slow-witted person
they looked like a tribe of Neanderthals compared to the bridegroom's patrician-looking family
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in barbarians
a man with crude manners and habits and outmoded attitudes
made the mistake of dining with some Neanderthal who repeatedly mistook his shirtsleeve for a napkin
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for Neanderthals
Noun
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Payouts for the runner-up and semifinal losers have also declined relative to the overall purse in the past decade, while the pool for the qualifying draws has nearly doubled over that span.—
Lev Akabas,
Sportico.com,
11 June 2026 -
The index is sharply lower on the session, with Samsung one of the biggest losers.—
Leonie Kidd,
CNBC,
10 June 2026
Noun
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There are barbarians with battle axes and swords, robots with laser guns, spaceships, a warlock with a skull for a face.—
Mike Ryan,
IndieWire,
4 June 2026
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In most academic histories of European imperialism written in this century, the Europeans are the barbarians, killing and raping and looting on an unprecedented scale.—
David A. Bell,
The New York Review of Books,
19 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The question becomes whether the Blues want to bring in a reinforcement now or let their recent high draft picks take their lumps.—
Dom Luszczyszyn,
New York Times,
26 May 2026
-
This fermentation process separates the milk into curds (the thicker lumps of cheese) and whey (the liquid portion).—
Sarah Bence,
Verywell Health,
24 May 2026
Noun
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Many wonders made the list, including royal burial grounds in Egypt, an Indonesian archipelago of 1,500 islands and Turkish cliffs formerly inhabited by Bronze Age troglodytes (cave dwellers).—
John Metcalfe,
Mercury News,
24 Oct. 2025
Noun
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This is different from the pastime counterfactuals enjoyed after the fact by barfly drunks and social media idiots.—
Kyle Wagner,
New York Daily News,
3 June 2026
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Kids, let’s face it, are idiots by nature, and that’s not their fault.—
Matt Reigle OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
27 May 2026
Noun
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Visitors can walk 7 miles of trails and see 140 bird species and animals such as manatees, dolphins, alligators, otters, bobcats, sea turtles and gopher tortoises.—
USA TODAY Network,
USA Today,
10 June 2026
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But habitat became inconsequential when the animals ceased to exist.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 June 2026
Noun
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There are complicated brain-chemistry factors involved that have to do with testosterone, and dopaminergic systems, and kappa-opioid receptors, all of which seem to add up to a Jim Gaffigan joke about how men are morons compared with their wives.—
McKay Coppins,
The Atlantic,
12 Mar. 2026
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The Dilbert principle — traced back to a quote in a 1995 strip — posited that managers and higher-ups are actually successful morons whose stubbornness is confused for real leadership qualities.—
Jon Blistein,
Rolling Stone,
13 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The findings add to a growing body of evidence that Neanderthals — our closest extinct human relatives — were cognitively and psychologically more similar to modern humans than previously thought, rather than the simple-minded, brutish cavemen of earlier stereotypes.—
Ashley Strickland,
CNN Money,
13 May 2026
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The strip explored the life of a group of cavemen and their anthropomorphic animals and dinosaurs in prehistoric times, and has been in production for nearly 70 years, currently managed by Hart’s family.—
Arushi Jacob,
Variety,
2 Apr. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Neanderthals.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/Neanderthals. Accessed 14 Jun. 2026.
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