preliterate

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.

This is not to say that there isn’t anything valuable to be found in the oral histories of preliterate societies, or in prehistoric cave paintings and archaeological artifacts.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

Myths themselves commonly embody the religious beliefs of ancient or preliterate peoples, but Philip Ball suggests that we are still generating them.

From Washington Post • Aug. 18, 2021

In the meantime, however, cultural anthropologists and human rights organisations abhor the inevitable implication that preliterate people live in chronic violence.

From The Guardian • Mar. 12, 2019

Yet writing is just one of many possible manifestations of power, and preliterate humans were obviously quite familiar with others.

From Slate • Aug. 4, 2015

How can we ever hope to wrest the answers to those questions from Africa’s preliterate past, lacking the written evidence that teaches us about the spread of the Roman Empire?

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond