ape-man
Americannoun
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a hypothetical primate representing a transitional form between true humans and the anthropoid apes, considered by some as constituting the genus Australopithecus.
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a human assumed to have been reared by apes.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ape-man
First recorded in 1860–65; ape ( def. ) + man ( def. )
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.
See Examples For:
What looks like an ape-man is probably a bear standing on its hind legs.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 8, 2019
In “2001,” an ape-man turns a bone into a weapon, initiating a progression that traces humanity from, as it’s been described, ape to angel.
From New York Times ● May 17, 2018
I like any kind of weird ape-man creature type stuff.
From New York Times ● May 9, 2018
The scientist quickly realized that he had in his hands one of the most important evolutionary finds since the discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus, the ape-man of Java.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was definitely not a gorilla; she has since seen some of those at the Bronx Zoo, and this ape-man was nothing like them.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
We evolved from predecessors who had differently shaped skulls and often heavier builds, but were otherwise much more like us than, say, the ape-men that came before them.
From Time ● Jun. 7, 2017
There are discoveries to be made and mysteries to be solved, but not of lake serpents and preternaturally hard-to-photograph ape-men.
From Slate ● Nov. 23, 2012
The representatives of the advanced, scientific, galaxy-spanning organization were now the bad guys, and the heroes were positively medieval -- hereditary princes and princesses, wizards and ape-men.
From Salon ● Jan. 18, 2011
If this claim can be substantiated, ape-men existed on the earth several hundred thousand years earlier than has hitherto been proved.
From Time Magazine Archive
There, facing the ominous hole in the center of the clearing, with a pole on either side of them, the ape-men lowered the cage to the ground.
From Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930 by Various
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.
