Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Relating or belonging to the Middle Ages.
  • adjective Of or relating to a historical period roughly coinciding with the European Middle Ages and characterized by feudal or aristocratic social structures, as in Japan or China.
  • adjective Suggestive of the Middle Ages, as in being hierarchical or cruel.
  • adjective Informal Old-fashioned; unenlightened.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to or characteristic of the middle ages: as, medieval art or architecture; the medieval spirit; a medieval habit of thought. See middle ages, under age.
  • noun One belonging to the middle ages.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • Same as mediæval, mediævalism, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of or relating to the Middle Ages, perhaps circa 500 to circa 1500 CE.
  • adjective having characteristics associated with the Middle Ages.
  • adjective archaic.
  • adjective brutal.
  • noun Someone living in the Middle Ages.
  • noun A medieval one.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective as if belonging to the Middle Ages; old-fashioned and unenlightened
  • adjective characteristic of the time of chivalry and knighthood in the Middle Ages
  • adjective relating to or belonging to the Middle Ages

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From New Latin medium aevum, the middle age : Latin, neuter of medius, middle; see medhyo- in Indo-European roots + Latin aevum, age; see aiw- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin, medium ("middle") aevum ("age")

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Examples

  • White's descriptions of daily life in medieval England are ravishingly vivid: Like a restorer of antiques, he strips away the grime and smoke from the past until it's bright and clear as the present.

    Arthur Comes Alive In 'The Once And Future King' 2010

  • RAZ: And I can imagine you went to your publisher, and you said, I've got a story to write about the building of a cathedral in medieval England.

    Author Ken Follett Takes On The 20th Century 2010

  • Fulfill all of your Renaissance fair fantasies with a visit to a park that has been transformed into a medieval market town with "performers, guests and festival goers dress in medieval costume."

    The Cloisters: NYC Day-Trip Getaway (PHOTOS) The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • White's descriptions of daily life in medieval England are ravishingly vivid: Like a restorer of antiques, he strips away the grime and smoke from the past until it's bright and clear as the present.

    Arthur Comes Alive In 'The Once And Future King' 2010

  • White's descriptions of daily life in medieval England are ravishingly vivid: Like a restorer of antiques, he strips away the grime and smoke from the past until it's bright and clear as the present.

    Arthur Comes Alive In 'The Once And Future King' 2010

  • It likewise furthered the career of Mary Shelley as "The Author of Frankenstein," the rubric under which she continued her anonymous publication with a second novel immersed in medieval Italian history, Valperga: or, The Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca (1823).

    Biography 2010

  • I know that in medieval times the salt was very, very expensive and it was only for rich people.

    Setting the Table | Edwardian Promenade 2009

  • A gritty sword-and-sorcery novel set in medieval Spain, but unlike those inspired by Lord of the Rings, the plot involves not a quest but warfare, which is much more typical of Spanish history.

    MIND MELD: Guide to International SF/F (Part I ) 2009

  • Professor Henry Harpending (Chair of Anthropology at Univ of Utah) has claimed that the hundreds of years of being restricted to the moneylending profession in medieval Europe led to a selection for higher IQ in European Jews.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Approaching Arguments That Have A Racist Past 2010

  • White's descriptions of daily life in medieval England are ravishingly vivid: Like a restorer of antiques, he strips away the grime and smoke from the past until it's bright and clear as the present.

    Arthur Comes Alive In 'The Once And Future King' 2010

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