A person belonging to a preliterate, non-industrial society or culture. The anthropologist studied the tools and artifacts of the primitive to understand their way of life.
An original or early form of something from which later, more developed forms are derived. These chipped stone flakes are primitives of the modern knife.
A basic or unsophisticated version of something. The software was a primitive compared to the advanced applications available today.
A work of art from an early period of an artist's career, often characterized by a lack of refinement. The gallery featured a primitive by the renowned painter, highlighting his early style.
Mathematics: a function whose derivative is a given function; an antiderivative. The primitive of sin x is –cos x.