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Glite Dictionary
anthropoid ape

anthropoid ape

6.3
A large tailless animal like a gorilla or chimpanzee that is more like humans than other monkeys
  • noun
  • /ˈænθrəˌpɔɪd eɪp/
  • Specialized
translation icon : simio antropoide
  • Apes, the chimpanzee and the gorilla (both highly intelligent anthropoid apes from Africa), show emotions as much as humans do.

Examples

  • The orangutan is a fascinating anthropoid ape that shares many similarities with human beings.

  • Anthropoid ape, a man-like ape.

    The Pit (1981)

  • Bodies were seen as providing clues to the evolution of race since the ratio of the length of the forearm to the distance from fingertips to knee was presumed to be an index of evolutionary distance from anthropoid apes.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Chimpanzees, which are anthropoid apes, are known for their complex social structures and intelligence.

  • Scientists study anthropoid apes to understand more about human evolution and behavior.

Synonyms

ape
vsanthropoid ape
118 1.0

A primate without a tail, like a chimpanzee or gorilla

limits meaning to non human large tailless primates that closely resemble people

Surface Forms

anthropoid ape singular
anthropoid apes plural

Morphology

anthropoid + ape

The phrase is transparently compositional: 'anthropoid' denotes human-like primates and 'ape' denotes a primate, so together they clearly mean a human-like primate. This follows normal noun + noun compounding and is directly inferable by learners who know both constituents.

Etymology

Anthropoid ape comes from two older words: anthropoid meaning 'human-like' and ape meaning a large animal like a monkey but without a tail. People put these words together because these apes look and move in ways that remind us of humans, so the name came to mean 'an ape that resembles a human'.