noun, verb -typed, -typ⋅ing.| 1. | the original or model on which something is based or formed. |
| 2. | someone or something that serves to illustrate the typical qualities of a class; model; exemplar: She is the prototype of a student activist. |
| 3. | something analogous to another thing of a later period: a Renaissance prototype of our modern public housing. |
| 4. | Biology. an archetype; a primitive form regarded as the basis of a group. |
| 5. | to create the prototype or an experimental model of: to prototype a solar-power car. |
prototype pro·to·type (prō'tə-tīp')
n.
A primitive or ancestral form or species.