Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not civilized; barbarous.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not civilized or reclaimed from savage life; rude; barbarous; savage: as, uncivilized hordes.
- Coarse; indecent.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Not civilized; not reclaimed from savage life; rude; barbarous; savage.
- adjective rare Not civil; coarse; clownish.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Crude ,barbarous ,wild ,uncultured . - adjective Used to describe people who display a marked lack of manners as defined by a given
culture . - adjective Used to describe behaviours deemed
savage orinappropriate .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective without civilizing influences
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But I believe that calling people barbarians, fools, or uncivilized is the antithesis of reasoned discourse and rational debate, and it pretty much closes the door to any sort of meaningful conversation.
Mind Meld Make-Up Test: Orson Scott Card on Young Adult Fiction 2008
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One general description of civilized verses uncivilized is in reference to how much respect the people have for life.
The Formal Home 2006
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I guess this could be dangerous in uncivilized society, where people are more or less educated.
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However, anyone who thinks this is an isolated incident or that it only happens in uncivilized, hick states has their head so far up their ass, they should be able to reconsume their dinner.
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Civilization is a relative arbitrary term; and the ancestors whom we are pleased to term uncivilized, may have possessed as high a degree of mental culture as ourselves, though it unquestionably differed in kind.
An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 Mary Frances Cusack 1864
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He is popularly called uncivilized; I do not know why.
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Quite a character reference, she thought—to be called uncivilized by someone as low and vicious as a Kazon-Ogla.
HER KLINGON SOUL MICHAEL JAN FRIEDMAN 1997
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Can a world that raises up such people be called uncivilized?
TO STORM HEAVEN ESTHER FRIESNER 1990
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He is popularly called uncivilized; I do not know why.
Mark Twain, a Biography. Complete Albert Bigelow Paine 1899
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He is popularly called uncivilized; I do not know why.
Mark Twain, a Biography — Volume II, Part 2: 1886-1900 Albert Bigelow Paine 1899
oroboros commented on the word uncivilized
A fellow with a portable microphone was on a central city corner saying to the passing crowds, "Uncivilized men do uncivilized things, as also do the civilized, but they just hide it better. That, Dear Passers-By, is what distinguishes the two."
(And many fine citizens went home with the blues.)
--Jan Cox
August 19, 2007