Neanderthals

noun

plural of Neanderthal
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

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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
  1. losers
  2. barbarians
  3. lumps
  4. troglodytes
  5. hulks
  6. animals
  7. idiots
  8. cavemen
Noun
  • Memory and chip firms SanDisk, Western Digital, AMD, Seagate and Micron were the index’s biggest losers, all plunging around 10%.
    — Steve Kopack, NBC news, 5 Nov. 2026
  • The losers would likely prefer to continue attacking their opponents with mud-slinging ads filled with lies.
    — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of losers
Noun
  • Carved with a military scene of Roman soldiers trampling barbarians, the coffin was likely intended for a man.
    — Mindy Weisberger, CNN Money, 2 Nov. 2026
  • In the absence of other forces, empires seldom succumb to a challenger or to barbarians at the gates.
    — NIALL FERGUSON, Foreign Affairs, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of barbarians
Noun
  • The longer the sweet potatoes heat in the Dutch oven, the more the lumps will soften.
    — Candy Hom, AJC.com, 7 Nov. 2026
  • Morton kosher salt in food processor until no lumps remain, about 1 minute.
    — Shilpa Uskokovic, Bon Appetit Magazine, 1 Nov. 2026
Definition of lumps
Noun
  • 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
Definition of troglodytes
Noun
  • Instead, fog clung to every nook and crevice of the glacial hulks surrounding us.
    — Arati Menon, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Water levels on the Danube River, the second longest in Europe, have dropped so low because of drought that the hulks of dozens of World War II German battleships — and even the remains of an ancient woolly mammoth — are emerging into view.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 4 Aug. 2026
Definition of hulks
Noun
  • The facility -- which is home to more than 10,000 animals -- must operate 24 hours a day.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 2 Nov. 2026
  • Rice takes curious young readers on a tour of the natural world that’s hiding in plain sight, focusing on the ways that plants and animals communicate and connect.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 2 Nov. 2026
Definition of animals
Noun
  • Speaking of idiots, look who's about to return to the States.
    — Joe Kinsey OutKick, FOXNews.com, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Eleven gullible idiots were talked into acquitting because of an imaginary female ailment.
    — Voice of the People, New York Daily News, 20 Sep. 2026
Definition of idiots
Noun
  • 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
  • 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
Definition of cavemen
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.

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Neanderthals
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Cite this Entry

“Neanderthals.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/Neanderthals. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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