atavistic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Listening to Xiu Xiu’s “Eraserhead” on a hot and stormy Friday afternoon is an atavistic summoning of the many gifts that David Lynch left us to remember him by.
From Salon ● Jul. 10, 2026
She craved a more personally expressive mode of performance—an “experience that was deeper in my body,” she said, that engaged with “the atavistic depth of words.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
“Parade,” which delves into antisemitism, systemic bias in our judicial system and the power of a wily demagogue to stoke atavistic hatred for self-gain, has a disconcerting timeliness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2025
But many women called it a put-down, an atavistic reaction to the feminist movement.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2021
Her palm lines do not branch into head, heart, and life lines like other people’s but crease with just one atavistic fold.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
Vocabulary lists containing atavistic
Into the Wild
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Fences
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
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