bipedalism

American

[bahy-ped-l-iz-uhm] / baɪˈpɛd lˌɪz əm /

Also bipedality

noun

the condition of being two-footed or of using two feet for standing and walking.

Etymology

Origin of bipedalism

First recorded in 1905–10; bipedal + -ism

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Prior to that, she was a paleoanthropology researcher and received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in 2016 for work focused on hominin bipedalism.

From The Wall Street Journal

Both species possessed upright postures, bipedalism and were highly agile.

From Science Daily

He posited that humans evolved through natural selection, and that the first thing to develop was bipedalism; in other words, standing upright preceded brain development.

From New York Times

It all comes down to bipedalism, or the fact that humans walk on two legs.

From Salon

"Our study points to a three-step evolution of human bipedalism," adds Terry Harrison, a New York University anthropologist and one of the paper's co-authors.

From Science Daily

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023