atavistic

1. 1.

   characteristic of an atavist

   Synonymsthrowback

   Similarregressive

Questions about atavistic

What does atavistic mean?

atavistic means "characteristic of an atavist".

How many syllables are in atavistic?

atavistic has 4 syllables: at-a-vi-stic. The stress falls on "at". In IPA it is /ˈætəvɪstɪk/.

What is another word for atavistic?

Close synonyms include throwback. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is atavistic a common word?

atavistic is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.