chimpanzee

[ chim-pan-zee, chim-pan-zee ]

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

/ ˌtʃɪmpænˈziː /

noun

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of chimpanzee¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of chimpanzee¹

C18: from Kongo dialect

Example Sentences

She explains grief behavior expressed by chimpanzees as due to “survival instincts” — and grieving behavior generally as “a survival instinct.”

From Washington Post

We see this in many nonhumans as well, such as in chimpanzees, where females avoid mating with kin by likewise transferring between communities.

From Nautilus

Johnson & Johnson is testing a similar vaccine that uses a human adenovirus, rather than a chimpanzee one, as the delivery mechanism to carry a gene that codes for making part of the spike protein.

From Time

Chimpanzees will stake out their own territory and male chimpanzees will go out in bands to patrol that territory.

From Nautilus

The AstraZeneca vaccine uses a method developed by researchers at Oxford’s Jenner Institute that uses a chimpanzee virus that has been genetically modified to produce the coronavirus spike protein.

From Fortune

As a friend once told me, “A chimpanzee could have made money in L.A. real estate—and many did.”

From The Daily Beast

The author of Guns, Germs, and Steel is out with an adaptation for young people of The Third Chimpanzee.

From The Daily Beast

Tell me about your earliest personal interaction with a chimpanzee.

From The Daily Beast

On Wednesday, the collection of pictures by Mikki (pictured above), a chimpanzee, reeled in roughly $75,000 at Sotheby's.

From The Daily Beast

He clung to me like a chimpanzee baby with all four of his weakened limbs.

From The Daily Beast

Again, we have the fact that man possesses normally only twelve ribs, one less than is found in the gorilla and the chimpanzee.

From Project Gutenberg

It is shortest in the chimpanzee, somewhat longer in the gorilla, still longer in the orang, and remarkably long in the gibbon.

From Project Gutenberg

The chief examples of anthropoid intelligence are told of the chimpanzee, which has been most frequently kept in captivity.

From Project Gutenberg

This species, apparently most nearly allied to the chimpanzee, was taller than any existing ape.

From Project Gutenberg

It would take an awful lot of explaining to make him understand the difference between, say, a chimpanzee and a man.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• ape
• baboon
• gorilla
• lemur
• orangutan