anthropoid ape

American  

[an-thruh-poid eyp] / ˈæn θrəˌpɔɪd ˈeɪp /

noun

1. any member of the former taxonomic suborder Anthropoidea, under which New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, and apes, including humans, were grouped: modern classification groups these under the suborder Haplorhini along with the tarsiers.

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anthropoid ape British  

noun

1. any primate of the family Pongidae, having no tail, elongated arms, and a highly developed brain. The group includes gibbons, orang-utans, chimpanzees, and gorillas

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anthropoid ape Scientific  

/ ăn′thrə-poid′ /

1. A primate belonging to the family Pongidae, which includes the chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, and orangutan. Orangutans are arboreal whereas the other three species are terrestrial or semiarboreal. Anthropoid apes move in trees mainly by arm-swinging and on the ground by quadrupedal walking in which the upper body weight is borne on the knuckles.

2. Also called great ape pongid

3. Compare hominid

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Etymology

Origin of anthropoid ape

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

anthropoid ape

There were twenty cages––and in each one was a sulking, red-eyed anthropoid ape.

From The Mind Master by Arthur J. Burks

But the teeth are human teeth, and the jaw seems transitional between that of an anthropoid ape and that of man.

From The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) A Plain Story Simply Told by J. Arthur Thomson

The orang-outang was then the highest known anthropoid ape; and it was from the orang-outang, therefore, that the fancy of Lyell and other objectors in the pre-Darwinian days continually derived the Lamarckian Adam.

From Charles Darwin by Grant Allen

The Bentley buried within the mighty carcass of an anthropoid ape watched and shuddered.

From Astounding Stories, June, 1931 by Various

He never professed to trace the birth of ethics, idealization, science, poetry, art, religion, or anything spiritual in the anthropoid ape.

From No Refuge but in Truth by Goldwin Smith