neandertal

1. 1.

   relating to or belonging to or resembling Neanderthal man

   “Neanderthal skull”

   SynonymsNeanderthalNeanderthalian
2. 2.

   ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance

   “was boorish and insensitive”

   “the loutish manners of a bully”

   “her stupid oafish husband”

   “aristocratic contempt for the swinish multitude”

   Synonymsboorishloutishneanderthaloafishswinish

   Similarunrefined

1. 1.

   extinct robust human of Middle Paleolithic in Europe and western Asia

   SynonymsNeandertal manNeanderthal manNeanderthalHomo sapiens neanderthalensis

   Broaderhomo

   Part ofgenus Homo

Other forms of neandertal

plural

neandertals·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about neandertal

What does neandertal mean?

neandertal means "relating to or belonging to or resembling Neanderthal man". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in neandertal?

neandertal has 4 syllables: ne-an-der-tal. The stress falls on "an".

What is another word for neandertal?

Close synonyms include Neanderthal, Neanderthalian, boorish, loutish, neanderthal. 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 neandertal a common word?

neandertal 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.