hominin

American

[hom-uh-nin] / ˈhɒm ə nɪn /

noun

Anthropology, Zoology.

any member of the group consisting of all modern and extinct humans and their immediate ancestors, specifically members of the tribe Hominini.

Etymology

Origin of hominin

First recorded in 1985–90; from New Latin Hominīnī, equivalent to Latin homin- (stem of homō ) “human being, man” + -īnī (plural of the adjective suffix -īnus indicating origin or affiliation); Homo ( def. ), -ine ¹ ( def. ) )

Compare meaning

How does hominin compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

hominin vs. hominid

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.

North and South America and Australia are especially intriguing because they were not inhabited by earlier hominin species before Homo sapiens.

From Science Daily

These conditions ultimately led researchers to the hominin remains and the geological context that makes the current study possible.

From Science Daily

The area documents early Acheulean stone tool industries, shifting animal communities linked to climate change, and multiple phases of hominin presence over hundreds of thousands of years.

From Science Daily

David Lefèvre describes it as "a unique cave system carved by a marine highstand into earlier coastal formations and later filled with sediments that preserved hominin fossils in a secure, undisturbed and undisputable stratigraphic context."

From Science Daily

By analyzing 180 magnetostratigraphic samples, an unprecedented number for a hominin site of this age, researchers pinpointed the exact position of the polarity switch at 773,000 years and captured its brief duration of 8,000 to 11,000 years.

From Science Daily

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023