Meaning

Belonging to the first ages..

Definitions by Sense

1. Belonging to the first ages.
2. Primary; original.
3. Primitive.

Example Sentences

a primeval galaxy

And Tarzan had to be contented with that arrangement, though he would have liked it well enough to have set off the next morning—he was as impatient as a child. Really Tarzan of the Apes was but a child, or a primeval man, which is the same thing in a way.

A letter from Mr. [Brian Houghton] Hodgson to Mr. Bayley, was then read, giving an outline of the theocracy of the Buddha system of Nepal. […] According to the information now communicated, the northern Buddhas acknowledge four sets of divine beings, or of superhuman objects of veneration. The first of these is, contrary to the generally supposed atheistical tendency of the faith, one primæval and uncreated deity. This first Buddha manifested five of his attributes, as five secondary Buddhas; in one of whom, Amitabha, or the 'immeasurably splendid,' in Prakrit and Pali, Amitabo, we recognise the Amito of the Japanese.

But if life has a happiness over which the primeval curse has passed and harmed not, it is the early and long enduring affection of blood and habit.

If their views were entrancing their sanitation was primeval; if they possessed stables they were also next to the gas-works; if their gardens were delightful there were odours suspicious of mice in the bedrooms.

Word Forms

• more primeval
• most primeval
• primaeval
• primæval

Synonyms for primeval

Related Words

When Should You Use Primeval?

Use primeval when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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