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Definitions

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Pertaining to or characterized by atavism; atavic.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. of the recurrence of a trait reappearing after an absence of one or more generations due to a chance recombination of genes.
  2. adj. of a throwback or exhibiting primitivism.
  3. adj. relating to earlier, more primitive behavior that returns after an absence.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. displaying characteristics of a previous cultural era or of a previous ancestral form; displaying atavism.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. characteristic of an atavist

Examples

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Comments

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  • Nathon Hay atavistic guilt; throwback guilt Jun 2, 2011

  • chained_bear "With a faint atavistic sense of housewifeliness, I tucked a soft green pillow under his head."
    —Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross (NY: Bantam Dell, 2001), 761 Jan 26, 2010

  • yarb Citation on berk. Jun 30, 2008

  • uselessness This word makes me want to study my genealogy and see if I have any famous ancestors I'm emulating. Jun 12, 2007

‘atavistic’ has been looked up 3694 times, loved by 16 people, added to 119 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.