low-tech

adjective

Simple, uncomplicated, primitive, not involving advanced technology.

“Sometimes the low-tech ways are best: bash it with a rock, that'll loosen it.”

Meanings

adjective
  1. informalSimple, uncomplicated, primitive, not involving advanced technology.

    Sometimes the low-tech ways are best: bash it with a rock, that'll loosen it.

    3 more examples

    The Automat, whose gleaming chrome-and-glass machines brought high-tech eating to a low-tech era, has gulped down its last coin and served up its last helping of macaroni, baked beans and kaiser rolls.

    1991 April 11, James Barron, “Last Automat Closes, Its Era Long Gone”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Dec 2022

    Many jihadist plots have been foiled and the security apparatus is getting better, overall, at pre-empting those who would do us ill. But, they say, the nature of the threat and the terrorists’ increasing use of low-tech, asymmetrical tactics such as hire vehicles and knives, make it all but impossible to stop every assault.

    2017 August 20, “The Observer view on the attacks in Spain”, in The Observer

    The control centre of the Shinkansen, the world's first high-speed railway, is surprisingly low-tech.

    2024 December 27, Christian Wolmar, “A mix of modern and traditional on board the Shinkansen”, in RAIL, number 1025, page 40

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectivenot involving high technology

Opposite

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Cite this entry
APA

low-tech. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/low-tech

MLA

“low-tech.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/low-tech. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “low-tech,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/low-tech.

Source: low-tech on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.