prehensile
Americanadjective
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adapted for seizing, grasping, or taking hold of something.
a prehensile tail.
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able to perceive quickly; having keen mental grasp.
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greedy; grasping; avaricious.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of prehensile
1781–85; < French préhensile (coined by Buffon), equivalent to Latin prehens ( us ) ( see prehension) + French -ile -ile
Explanation
Prehensile means "able to grasp" and often refers to such body parts as claws, feet, and tails. Elephants curl their prehensile noses around objects in order to pick them up. Prehensile is an adjective that comes from a French word for “grasped.” Humans and other primates (like monkeys, lemurs, and gorillas) have prehensile hands with curling fingers for grasping — a definite advantage over dogs, for instance, who can’t use a pencil when poetic inspiration strikes them. Prehensile can also mean "greedy" or "grasping for riches."
Vocabulary lists containing prehensile
The Hot Zone
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List 3
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On the Origin of Species
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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.
They have stiff white whiskers and a prehensile tail that’s as long as their body.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
There was also Drepanosaurus, a tree-dwelling reptile equipped with a large claw resembling that of a tree sloth, along with a smaller claw on its prehensile tail.
From Science Daily ● May 29, 2026
The prehensile tail that gives the tree-dwelling, fruit-eating species its name exists in this case in the imagination only.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 1, 2022
Residents of the White House have had fur and feathers, claws and hooves, scales, stripes and prehensile tails.
From New York Times ● Nov. 14, 2020
The Brazil nuts they had been counting on to sustain them were in short supply, and the piglike tapir, with its prehensile snout, was elusive.
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
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.
