as in ancient
relating to or occurring near the beginning of a process, series, or time period
primeval forests slowly disappearing as the climate changed
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Recent Examples of primeval
Suddenly, 43 seconds later, the sky cracked open and light came screaming out in a primeval flash of energy.
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David Perlmutt, Charlotte Observer, 6 Aug. 2025
Astrophysicists now believe that this nebulous stuff is a stellar incubator; the primeval chaos from which star formation is presently underway.
—Joe Rao, Space.com, 28 July 2025
Our own moon shows evidence of primeval tidal heating too.
—Robin Andrews, Wired News, 15 June 2025
Its images seem to be derived from some anthropological account of primeval human conflict.
—Nicholas Dames, Harpers Magazine, 29 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for primeval
Recent Examples of Synonyms for primeval
Adjective
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On a cold winter afternoon, António and Jota return from the front with their friends, looking for an ancient Roman thermal bath.—
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Over time, Thompson and her colleagues have unearthed more burials, ancient human DNA and tiny human bone fragments.—
Adjective
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Buffington had been working as an after-school instructor for classes in woodworking, primitive skills and kite-making through the Princeton Recreation Department.—
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These regular observations will gradually take in data and aim to provide pivotal information about the strengths, compositions, and histories of these primitive cosmic bodies.—
Adjective
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But there is a primal scream stuck in our collective throat.—
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Nambiar directs from a script by Abhishek Bandekar that speaks to contemporary youth culture, merging the world of digital content creation with primal survival stakes.—
Adjective
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To confirm their findings, the team compared the prehistoric residue to 250-year-old arrows stored in Swedish museums.—
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And if the sneakers themselves didn’t go heavy enough with the prehistoric theme, the shoebox is also fully decked out with a dinosaur motif which, when opened, is intended to look like a Tyrannosaurus opening its mouth.—
Adjective
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Testing an idea older than the discovery itself To explore this mystery, the researchers turned to an idea proposed decades ago but never confirmed—primordial black holes.—
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Another study, published in March, found that microlightning in primordial mist may have sparked the chemical formation of the building blocks of life more than 3 billion years ago.—
Adjective
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It’ll be deployed to Google DeepMind and Hyundai’s Robotics Metaplant Applications center in the coming months, and additional customers will adopt it in early 2027.—
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Opening arguments in a Stanford felony vandalism case began Friday amid sharp disputes over whether political views tied to Israel’s war in Gaza should factor into the trial — an issue that has shaped the case from its earliest stages.—
Cite this Entry
“Primeval.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/primeval. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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