sapiens
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of sapiens
Borrowed into English from New Latin around 1935–40
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.
A creature descends to Earth from a sleek spacecraft, still humanoid but far removed from its ancestor species Homo sapiens sapiens.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
Earlier studies had found signs that Homo sapiens mixed with archaic humans beyond Neanderthals and Denisovans.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
Meanwhile, modern Homo sapiens have existed for only 300,000 years, and what are the odds we make it even another millennium?
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Nominally the case turned on OpenAI’s conversion to a for-profit company and Mr. Musk’s worries about Homo sapiens being displaced by superintelligent robots.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
The most likely answer is the very thing that makes the debate possible: Homo sapiens conquered the world thanks above all to its unique language.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
