WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
Pa•le•o•lith•ic
(pā′lē ə lith′ik or, esp. Brit., pal′ē-),USA pronunciation adj.
- Anthropology(sometimes l.c.) Anthropol. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the cultures of the late Pliocene and the Pleistocene epochs, or early phase of the Stone Age, which appeared first in Africa and are marked by the steady development of stone tools and later antler and bone artifacts, engravings on bone and stone, sculpted figures, and paintings and engravings on the walls of caves and rock-shelters: usually divided into three periods (Lower Paleolithic, c2,000,000–c200,000 b.c., Middle Paleolithic, c150,000–c40,000 b.c., Upper Paleolithic, c40,000–c10,000 b.c..)
- paleo- + -lithic 1860–65
'Paleolithic' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
Abbeville
- Abbevillian
- Acheulean
- Altamira
- Aterian
- Aurignacian
- Chellean
- Clactonian
- Combe-Capelle man
- Cro-Magnon
- Dolní Věstonice
- Epipaleolithic
- Gravettian
- Grimaldian
- Jabrud
- Kalambo Falls
- Lascaux Cave
- Levalloisian
- Lower Paleolithic
- Magdalenian
- Mesolithic
- Middle Paleolithic
- Mousterian
- Neolithic
- Old Stone Age
- Paleolithic man
- Perigordian
- Solutrean
- Stone Age
- Torralba
- Upper Paleolithic
- Venus
- bâton de commandement
- cave art
- coup de poing
- flake tool
- grattoir
- hand ax
- microlith
- paleolith
- point
- tectiform
- tortoise-core