1. partially civilized; having some but not all characteristics of an advanced or refined society
Usage: often considered outdated or potentially offensive when applied to cultures or peoples

Examples

• The anthropologist described the remote tribe as semicivilized in his 19th-century writings.
• Modern scholars reject the semicivilized classification as culturally biased.
• The explorer’s journal contained references to semicivilized peoples he encountered.
• Such terms as semicivilized reflect the prejudices of their historical period.
• The concept of semicivilized societies has been largely abandoned by contemporary researchers.