okapi

[ oh-kah-pee ]

/ oʊˈkɑ pi /

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noun, plural o·ka·pis, (especially collectively) o·ka·pi.

an African mammal, Okapia johnstoni, closely related to and resembling the giraffe, but smaller and with a much shorter neck.

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Origin of okapi

1900; <Bambuba (Mvu’ba), a Central Sudanic language of the NE Democratic Republic of the Congo (or < a related Pygmy dial.), according to English Africanist Harry Johnston (1858–1927), author of the first zoological descriptions of the animal

Words nearby okapi

OJT, OK, oka, Okanagan, Okanagan Lake, okapi, Okavango, okay, Okayama, Okazaki, oke

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use okapi in a sentence

Similarly, air that Lynggaard vacuumed from the okapi pen contained DNA from 23 vertebrate species.
DNA in air can help ID unseen animals nearby|Laura Allen|January 28, 2022|Science News For Students
The okapi shot a dirty look at biologist Christina Islas Lynggaard.
DNA in air can help ID unseen animals nearby|Laura Allen|January 28, 2022|Science News For Students
I am bitterly sorry and disappointed to be obliged to say it, but I think there can be no doubt that we have lost that okapi.
With Airship and Submarine|Harry Collingwood
But, to their keen disappointment, no okapi made its appearance at the drinking-place that night.
With Airship and Submarine|Harry Collingwood

So the meek okapi had added a few stripes on his legs, like a zebra, just to make him less like the scornful antelope.
The Children's Book of London|Geraldine Edith Mitton
An okapi is worth a hundred other animals of any kind that one can name.
With Airship and Submarine|Harry Collingwood
The Okapi lives in pairs in the deepest recesses of the forest.
The Cambridge Natural History, Vol X., Mammalia|Frank Evers Beddard

British Dictionary definitions for okapi

okapi

/ (əʊˈkɑːpɪ) /

noun plural -pis or -pi

a ruminant mammal, Okapia johnstoni, of the forests of central Africa, having a reddish-brown coat with horizontal white stripes on the legs and small horns: family Giraffidae

Word Origin for okapi

C20: from a Central African word

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