premodern
adjective
pre·mod·ern
ˌprē-ˈmä-dərn 
nonstandard -ˈmä-d(ə-)rən
variants
or pre-modern
1
: of, relating to, originating in, or being an era before a modern one
premodern societies/beliefs
the pre-modern world
in premodern times
… still living in huts and using pre-modern agricultural methods 150 years after the invention of the steam engine.—
Jo Ann Skousen
Jo Ann Skousen2
or pre-Modern
: of, relating to, characterized by, or being any of the artistic and literary practices and philosophies that preceded those of modernism see modernism sense 3
pre-Modern architecture
a pre-Modern artist/writer
… following pre-modern conventions of pictorial composition, the artist combines several distinct vignettes within a single picture frame …—Benjamin Schmidt
Benjamin SchmidtExamples of premodern in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
His research on medieval Europe has included analysis of the Great Famine, the Crusades, the treatment of Jewish populations, the contributions of women to premodern economies, and the legal systems of medieval monarchies.
—Michael T. Nietzel, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024
Read More: The Big Business of Spooky Season In premodern times, both in Europe and the non-European world, ghosts were a fact of life.
—Tithi Bhattacharya / Made By History, TIME, 31 Oct. 2024
Yet that is a nonissue entirely of the authors’ own making, caused by their insistence on an anachronistically maximalist definition of the state that is not normally applied to premodern societies.
—Walter Scheidel, Foreign Affairs, 19 Apr. 2022
Yet the natural-parenting movement, which purports to re-create the practices of a romanticized premodern past, often makes women who’ve delivered via C-section, or with epidurals and other medical interventions, feel like failures.
—Michelle Goldberg, The Mercury News, 6 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for premodern 
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Michael T. Nietzel, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024
Read More: The Big Business of Spooky Season In premodern times, both in Europe and the non-European world, ghosts were a fact of life.
—Tithi Bhattacharya / Made By History, TIME, 31 Oct. 2024
Yet that is a nonissue entirely of the authors’ own making, caused by their insistence on an anachronistically maximalist definition of the state that is not normally applied to premodern societies.
—Walter Scheidel, Foreign Affairs, 19 Apr. 2022
Yet the natural-parenting movement, which purports to re-create the practices of a romanticized premodern past, often makes women who’ve delivered via C-section, or with epidurals and other medical interventions, feel like failures.
—Michelle Goldberg, The Mercury News, 6 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for premodern
Dictionary Entries Near premodern
Cite this Entry
“Premodern.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/premodern. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024.
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