# prehistory

> English word · Noun · frequency rank #39,490

## Definitions
1. The time before written records in any area of the world; the events and conditions of those times.
2. The study of those times.
3. Any past time (even recent) treated as such a distant, unknowable era.
4. The history leading up to some event, condition, etc.

## Etymology
From pre- (“before”) + history, first attested in the Foreign Quarterly Review in 1836, after the model of prehistoric, from French préhistorique.

## Easily confused with
- **prehistoric** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/prehistoric-vs-prehistory)

## Common misspellings (16)
`perhistory`, `pprehistory`, `prehhistory`, `prehisotry`, `prehisstory`, `prehistorry`, `prehistoryy`, `prehistoyr`, `prehistroy`, `prehisttory`, `prehitsory`, `prehsitory`, `preihstory`, `prheistory`, `prrehistory`, `rpehistory`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/prehistory