PRIMAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does primal mean? 

• PRIMAL (adjective)
  The adjective PRIMAL has 2 senses:

1. serving as an essential component

2. having existed from the beginning; in an earliest or original stage or state

  Familiarity information: PRIMAL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRIMAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Serving as an essential component

Synonyms:

cardinal; central; fundamental; key; primal

Context example:

computers are fundamental to modern industrial structure

Similar:

important; of import (of great significance or value)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having existed from the beginning; in an earliest or original stage or state

Synonyms:

aboriginal; primaeval; primal; primeval; primordial

Context example:

primordial forms of life

Similar:

early (at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time)

 Context examples 

The old primal melancholy was strong upon him.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

An involuntary, primal response in the neonate to loud noise or the feeling of falling.

(Moro Reflex, NCI Thesaurus)

An involuntary, primal response in the neonate to grasp the fingers when their palm is touched.

(Grasp Reflex, NCI Thesaurus)

I can hear him now, as I shall always hear him, the primal melancholy vibrant in his voice as he read:

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

This loneliness is bad enough in itself, but, to make it worse, he is oppressed by the primal melancholy of the race.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

In point of fact, the chief vent to this primal melancholy has been religion in its more agonizing forms.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

And while the whole face was the incarnation of fierceness and strength, the primal melancholy from which he suffered seemed to greaten the lines of mouth and eye and brow, seemed to give a largeness and completeness which otherwise the face would have lacked.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)