anthropoid ape

American  

[an-thruh-poid eyp] / ˈæn θrəˌpɔɪd ˈeɪp /

noun

1. any member of the former taxonomic suborder Anthropoidea, under which New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, and apes, including humans, were grouped: modern classification groups these under the suborder Haplorhini along with the tarsiers.

---

anthropoid ape British  

noun

1. any primate of the family Pongidae, having no tail, elongated arms, and a highly developed brain. The group includes gibbons, orang-utans, chimpanzees, and gorillas

---

anthropoid ape Scientific  

/ ăn′thrə-poid′ /

1. A primate belonging to the family Pongidae, which includes the chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, and orangutan. Orangutans are arboreal whereas the other three species are terrestrial or semiarboreal. Anthropoid apes move in trees mainly by arm-swinging and on the ground by quadrupedal walking in which the upper body weight is borne on the knuckles.

2. Also called great ape pongid

3. Compare hominid

---

Etymology

Origin of anthropoid ape

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

Do you know the difference between the brain of a man and that of an anthropoid ape?

From Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930 by Bates, Harry

But it does not follow, because man as we first find him was very much like the anthropoid ape, that he is a lineal descendant of the ape.

From The Eliminator; or, Skeleton Keys to Sacerdotal Secrets by Westbrook, Richard B.

But the teeth are human teeth, and the jaw seems transitional between that of an anthropoid ape and that of man.

From The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) A Plain Story Simply Told by Thomson, J. Arthur

The wonders of modern technical art are child's-play compared to the difficulties with which the anthropoid ape succeeded in making the first stone celt.

From Anarchism A Criticism and History of the Anarchist Theory by Zenker, Ernst Viktor

For, as Boyd-Dawkins and Hartmann have pointed out, the degree of flattening presented by some of these ancient human bones is greater than that which occurs in any existing species of anthropoid ape.

From Darwin, and After Darwin (Vol. 1 and 3, of 3) An Exposition of the Darwinian Theory and a Discussion of Post-Darwinian Questions by Romanes, George John