<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>the original or model on which something is based or formed.</li><li>someone or something that serves to illustrate the typical qualities of a class; model; exemplar: She is the prototype of a student activist.</li><li>something analogous to another thing of a later period: a Renaissance prototype of our modern public housing.</li><li>Biology. an archetype; a primitive form regarded as the basis of a group.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb</strong></p><ul><li>to create the prototype or an experimental model of: to prototype a solar-power car.</li></ul>