• noun:   a word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms

  Example: "`pick' is the primitive from which `picket' is derived"

• noun:   a mathematical expression from which another expression is derived
• noun:   a person who belongs to early stage of civilization
• adjective:   of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style

  Example: "Primitive art such as that by Grandma Moses is often colorful and striking"

• adjective:   used of preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial societies

  Example: "Primitive societies"

• adjective:   little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type

  Example: "Primitive mammals"

• adjective:   belonging to an early stage of technical development; characterized by simplicity and (often) crudeness

  Example: "Primitive movies of the 1890s"

Related words...