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chimpanzee

American  
[chim-pan-zee, chim-pan-zee] / ˌtʃɪm pænˈzi, tʃɪmˈpæn zi /

noun

  1. a very social great ape of sub-Saharan Africa, belonging to the genus Pan and having a brown-to-black coat, a relatively hairless face with a rounded muzzle, prominent ears, and hands adapted for knuckle-walking, and noted for its intelligence and humanlike behavior: both species, the common chimpanzee (P. troglodytes ) and the bonobo (P. paniscus ), are greatly reduced in number and considered endangered.

chimpanzee British  
/ ˌtʃɪmpænˈziː /

noun

  1. a gregarious and intelligent anthropoid ape, Pan troglodytes, inhabiting forests in central W Africa

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of chimpanzee

First recorded in 1730–40; origin uncertain; possibly from Vili , a Bantu language spoken on the Atlantic coast between southern Gabon and northern Angola

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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.

It’s not every day that a boy comes home holding hands with a chimpanzee, and with twenty-eight little monkeys hopping around all over the place.

From Literature

In nature, young female chimpanzees have been seen carrying sticks and treating them like infants.

From Science Daily

Then he started to walk like a chimpanzee.

From Literature

After the split between human and chimpanzee lineages around 7 million years ago, early human ancestors followed a complex evolutionary path that eventually led to the emergence of Homo sapiens roughly 300,000 years ago.

From Science Daily

Mountain gorillas show a full sibling rate of just 6%, while chimpanzees come in at only 4% -- on a par with dolphins.

From Science Daily

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

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.