bipedal
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bipedal
Explanation
Animals that walk on two legs are bipedal. So while you're bipedal, your cat is not. Bipedal animals include humans, ostriches, and gibbons. Many others are known as optional bipeds, meaning they're bipedal some of the time and walk on all four legs at other times. Apes, kangaroos, and bears are occasionally bipedal — and your little dog might be too, if she's very well trained. This word comes from the roots bi-,"two," and ped, "foot."
Vocabulary lists containing bipedal
"St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell
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The Ancient Period, Before 600 BCE
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This Week In Culture: December 21–27, 2019
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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.
I taped over pictures of myself and put away anything with personal information, so that Tau Robotics’ bipedal robots wouldn’t collect any identifying data.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Chants of: "Defend workplaces", "Time for rules", and "Don't wait, regulate" played on loudspeakers as the robots -- which ranged from bipedal humanoids to dog-like quadripeds -- demonstrated.
From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026
But Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics, wants people to know that today’s bipedal robots with powerful birdlike legs go way beyond “back flips and making coffee.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Among them were lagerpetids, small bipedal relatives of dinosaurs whose descendants would eventually evolve into pterosaurs.
From Science Daily ● May 29, 2026
“I’ll have you know that Mr. Ice, as he referred to himself, sampled that track from the greatest band in the history of bipedal man.”
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
