Synonyms

great ape

American

[greyt eyp] / ˈgreɪt ˈeɪp /

noun

any extant or extinct member of the family Hominidae, or hominids: its extant species include humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.

great ape British

noun

any of the larger anthropoid apes, such as the chimpanzee, orang-utan, or gorilla

"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

great ape Scientific

/ grāt /

See anthropoid ape

Etymology

Origin of great ape

First recorded in 1770–75

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.

The area is home to the world's rarest great ape, the tapanuli orangutan, just 800 of which were believed to exist in the wild before the disaster.

From Barron's

British animal rights campaigner and primatologist Dr Jane Goodall devoted her life to the study and conservation of chimpanzees and the other great apes.

From BBC

Zoo “baby boom” of great apes over the last four months.

From Los Angeles Times

Their absence has fuelled speculation as to whether the great apes were swept away by floods and landslides.

From BBC

These results support the idea that humans and great apes share vocal processing abilities that existed before spoken language emerged.

From Science Daily

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