atavism

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 atavism Millet plays with the title and with the idea of atavism, in which an ancient trait asserts itself by skipping forward a few generations to suddenly appear in the gene pool. Heather Scott Partington, Los Angeles Times, 18 Apr. 2025 Western elites believed that in the twenty-first century, cosmopolitanism and globalism would triumph over atavism and tribal loyalties. Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs, 20 Jan. 2017 This sumptuous piece of theatrical atavism bore little resemblance to the actual events of Mozart’s life, but most nonpurist musicians happily accepted the melodramatization; quite apart from the thespian pyrotechnics, the sophisticated choice of music was a revelation. Simon Callow, The New York Review of Books, 22 Dec. 2022 Is my interest in the moon some dormant atavism from a more primitive era of human life? Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 Oct. 2022 Early on, these doctors-cum-criminal-profilers explained bad apples through theories such as atavism. WIRED, 21 Feb. 2023 If learning and gentility are signs of civilization, perhaps our almost-big brains are straining against their residual atavism, struggling to expand. Richard Granger, Discover Magazine, 31 Oct. 2022 Obama crashed against a wall of atavism and paranoia. Matthew Continetti, National Review, 29 Jan. 2022 This gives his career an arc of atavism and abnegating tragedy, a willful artist hopelessly at the mercy of his obsessions. Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for atavism
Noun
  • Some analysts believe the current relapse in tensions between the two men will be short-lived given Musk’s reliance on the government, and vice-versa.
    Steve Kopack, NBC news, 1 July 2025
  • By some estimates, only 20% of people with eating disorders get treatment, relapse rates are high, and most people never even get properly diagnosed.
    Time, Time, 26 June 2025
Noun
  • Paying his contract wouldn't be ideal, but the prospect return would be minimal to bring on a struggling veteran option like the White Sox outfielder.
    Zach Pressnell, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 July 2025
  • Either way, the Heat could end up bringing back 14 of the 15 players from last season’s season-ending roster if Burks or Robinson return.
    Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 1 July 2025
Noun
  • If conditions fail, penalties or reversions execute without legal intervention.
    Sean Lee, Forbes.com, 5 June 2025
  • Society, in fact, needed to continue slavery for the interests of both Black and White since unshackling enslaved people would spark the race’s reversion to barbarism, imperiling White society.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 5 June 2025
Noun
  • After living under a state government often characterized by inaction, regression or outright hostility to such progressive values, California’s governance is a relative model of responsiveness and foresight.
    DeAndre Evans, Mercury News, 25 June 2025
  • Boyle has noted in numerous interviews, including this chat with Kermode and Mayo, that one of the things that fascinated him about the quarantine zone of 28 Years Later was the potential for a kind of cultural regression.
    Randall Colburn, EW.com, 23 June 2025
Noun
  • Under previous Israeli Prime Ministers, flagrant lapses of intelligence and military strategy were followed fairly quickly by hearings and dramatic results.
    David Remnick, New Yorker, 22 June 2025
  • Football has typically accepted these lapses and quietly moved on, adamant that the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PED) is primarily a problem for other sports.
    Philip Buckingham, New York Times, 20 June 2025
Noun
  • Visa retrogression might become more of an issue for Indian and Chinese applicants who invest under the high-unemployment category due to its more limited availability.
    Sam Silverman, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2025
  • Does the Senate really want to put in office a secretary with zero medical training, who believes in raw milk and not in the extraordinary benefits of vaccinations, without asking him about such retrogression?
    Arthur House, Hartford Courant, 22 Nov. 2024

Browse Nearby Words

Podcast

Cite this Entry

“Atavism.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/atavism. Accessed 12 Jul. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!