archaic

Pluralarchaics

1. 1
   out of dateadjective

   Belonging to or typical of a long-past age, or so old-fashioned as to seem quaint or out of date.

   The county still enforces an archaic law that bans selling cars on Sundays.

   To many younger voters, the monarchy looks like an archaic institution kept alive by ceremony.

   UsageUsually critical, said of laws, customs and institutions: an archaic law has outlived its time.

   Similarantiquated, outdated, old-fashioned, outmoded, obsolete

   Oppositemodern, contemporary

   Note

   A Guardian editorial of 2017 calls the monarchy "an ancient, archaic institution", and the doubling shows the difference between the two words: ancient only says old, while archaic says out of step with the present. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • A Guardian editorial published in 2017 calls the monarchy "an ancient, archaic institution". theguardian.com
2. 2
   old wordsadjective

   Of words: no longer in ordinary use, but still used now and then to give a sense of antiquity, likely to be understood by well-educated speakers, and found in historical texts.

   The novelist gave her knights archaic speech, full of thee and thou, to make the tale feel medieval.

   Readers today often need footnotes to get through the archaic language of older translations.

   Similarantiquated, old-fashioned

   Oppositemodern

   Note

   Dictionaries use it as one rung on a ladder of age labels, and the rungs are worth telling apart. A dated word still turns up but sounds old-fashioned; an obsolete one has dropped out and may not be understood. Archaic sits between: readers still recognize thou or forsooth, and writers choose such words on purpose, as the language of The Faerie Queene was made archaic to suit its bygone chivalry. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • The language of The Faerie Queene is deliberately archaic. chaucer.fas.harvard.edu
   • The poem's archaic language suits its depiction of a bygone world of chivalry. gutenberg.org
3. 3
   adjective

   Belonging to, or dating from, the period that archaeologists call the archaic period.

   Beneath the village floor, the team uncovered an archaic campsite with hearths and stone spear points but no pottery.

   The museum's Greek gallery opens with archaic statues, carved generations before the classical masterpieces next door.

   Note

   Where the site is decides which period the adjective names. In eastern North America it is the hunting-and-gathering stage between the first inhabitants and the Woodland cultures; in Greek art and coinage it is the age before the Classical. Either way it dates a find rather than judging it, unlike the old-fashioned sense: an archaic statue is simply an early one. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The American Archaic is characterized as a hunting-and-gathering stage. archive.org
   • This sequence describes eastern North America. Elsewhere in the Americas, different regional chronologies apply, including an Archaic followed by a Formative stage. en.wikipedia.org
   • In Greek art, the Archaic period precedes the Classical period. archaeological.org
   • In Greek coinage, the Archaic period precedes the Classical period. en.wikipedia.org
4. 4
   time period (Americas)nounUS

   In the Western Hemisphere, the prehistoric period following the earliest era of human presence, such as the Paleo-Indian, and preceding later prehistoric periods, such as the Woodland.

   Hunting camps from the Archaic dot the river valleys of the Midwest.

   The site's lowest layers date to the Archaic, when small bands moved with the seasons to hunt and gather.

   Note

   Method and Theory in American Archaeology (1958) calls it the Archaic Stage, a time of migratory hunting and gathering under conditions close to the present's. The period is often divided into Early, Middle and Late Archaic. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Method and Theory in American Archaeology was first published in 1958. archive.org
   • The book calls this the Archaic Stage and defines it through migratory hunting and gathering under environmental conditions resembling those of the present. archive.org
   • The Archaic period is often divided into Early, Middle and Late subperiods. mn.gov
5. 5
   early humannouncountable

   One of the archaic varieties of Homo sapiens, or an individual belonging to one.

   With its heavy brow ridge and low, sloping forehead, the fossil skull clearly belonged to an archaic.

   Some researchers argue that the archaics of East Asia interbred with modern humans moving into the region.

   Note

   Paleoanthropology's shorthand turns the adjective into a count noun, much as historians speak of the ancients: an archaic, the archaics of China.

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