neolithic

name

1. The period of prehistory from circa 8500 to 4500 BCE.

   “Holonyms: Stone Age < prehistory”

   “Meronyms: Pre-Pottery Neolithic, Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, Pre-Pottery Neolithic B”

adj

1. (not-comparable)Of or relating to the New Stone Age.

   “Tokens are first identified at around the same time as the local peoples changed from a life based on hunting and gathering to one based on agriculture. The tokens, as Schmandt-Besserat says, "were part and parcel of the Neolithic phenomenon; that is, the so-called agricultural revolution." (Before Writing 41).”

   “... I was fascinated by a pair of stories about a Neolithic girl who wrote the first letter, and invented the first alphabet.”

2. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative spelling of Neolithic.

   “With this thought in his mind, Challenger gave a contemptuous and condescending consent to the proposal that he should grace with his presence a proceeding which was, in his opinion, more fitted to the stone cabin of a neolithic savage than to the serious attention of one who represented the accumulated culture and wisdom of the human race.”

3. (informal)hopelessly outdated

   “What am I supposed to do with this neolithic piece of machinery?”

noun

1. A person who lived during the New Stone Age.

   “For the Neolithics, the stone was flint, and it's still impressive to see what they were able to achieve with it.”