atavism.

1. The reappearance of a trait associated with an earlier ancestral form.

2. A return to an earlier way of thinking or behaving.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• biological atavism
• ancestral atavism

On the page

The paper discussed biological atavism.

The researcher questioned whether the trait was an atavism.

The story imagined an atavism in the creature’s form.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror. Forms: Singular atavism; plural atavisms. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.