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Glite Dictionary
colobus monkey

colobus monkey

1 7.0
A monkey that lives in trees in Africa with long silky fur and small or no thumbs
  • noun
  • /ˈkɒləbəs ˈmʌŋki/
  • South African
translation icon : mono colobo
  • Colobus monkeys are often seen as they leap gracefully from branch to branch in their natural habitat.
  • red colobus monkey
  • black-and-white colobus monkeys
  • white colobus monkeys

Examples

  • Gombe chimps also hunt red colobus monkeys, but the percentage of group hunts is much lower: only 36 percent.

    Academic text (1991)

  • A small group of Colobus monkeys, including Betsy and her mother, run swiftly through the forest.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • These colobus monkeys are being hunted.

    Chimpanzee (2012)

  • Shortly after, we heard the characteristic cough of a red colobus monkey.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Trying to escape, two colobus monkeys jumped into smaller trees lower in the canopy.

    Academic text (1991)

  • The Colobus monkeys scatter as voices approach, revealing two tribesmen pulling a small wagon.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The relatively sluggish and large (almost thirty pounds) red colobus monkeys are the chimps' usual fare.

    Academic text (1991)

  • We spotted a group of colobus monkeys swinging through the treetops in the dense forest.

  • The long silky fur of the colobus monkey glistened in the sunlight as it foraged for leaves.

Synonyms

colobus
vscolobus monkey
  • South African
2 9.9

A monkey with long silky fur, often black and white, that lives in trees in western and central Africa

is the two word more explicit written form for the same animal

Surface Forms

colobus monkey singular
colobus monkeys plural

Morphology

colobus + monkey

The meaning is directly compositional: 'colobus' names a particular kind of monkey and 'monkey' classifies it, so a learner who knows both constituents will infer it refers to a type of monkey. There is no idiomatic or metaphorical shift and the noun-compound pattern is cross-linguistically common, making the phrase immediately comprehensible.

Etymology

Colobus monkey gets its name from the Greek word colobus, which means 'cut short' or 'missing'. This refers to the monkey's very small or missing thumb, so the name helps you remember a monkey with a reduced thumb.