| Noun | 1. | primitive - a person who belongs to early stage of civilizationaborigine - the earliest known inhabitants of a region Basket Maker - early Amerindians related to the Pueblo; known for skill in making baskets homo erectus - a member of an extinct species of human being; probably an ancestor of modern man ape-man, missing link - hypothetical organism formerly thought to be intermediate between apes and human beings | |
| 2. | primitive - a mathematical expression from which another expression is derived | |
| 3. | primitive - a word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms; "`pick' is the primitive from which `picket' is derived"word - a unit of language that native speakers can identify; "words are the blocks from which sentences are made"; "he hardly said ten words all morning" | |
| Adj. | 1. | primitive - belonging to an early stage of technical development; characterized by simplicity and (often) crudeness; "the crude weapons and rude agricultural implements of early man"; "primitive movies of the 1890s"; "primitive living conditions in the Appalachian mountains"early - being or occurring at an early stage of development; "in an early stage"; "early forms of life"; "early man"; "an early computer" | |
| 2. | primitive - little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type; "archaic forms of life"; "primitive mammals"; "the okapi is a short-necked primitive cousin of the giraffe"early - being or occurring at an early stage of development; "in an early stage"; "early forms of life"; "early man"; "an early computer" | |
| 3. | primitive - used of preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial societies; "primitive societies"anthropology - the social science that studies the origins and social relationships of human beings | |
| 4. | primitive - of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style; "primitive art such as that by Grandma Moses is often colorful and striking"untrained - not disciplined or conditioned or made adept by training; "an untrained voice"; "untrained troops"; "young minds untrained in the habit of concentration" | |