ape

/eɪp/

ape noun: an anthropoid of the superfamily Hominoidea, generally larger than monkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail.

Image: afrank99, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

ape (plural apes)

An anthropoid of the superfamily Hominoidea, generally larger than monkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail.
- Of vvhat texte thou proveſt hell / vvill a nother prove purgatory / a nother lymbo patrum / and a nother the aſſumpcion of oure ladi: And a nother ſhall prove of the ſame texte that an Ape hath a tayle.1528 October 12 (Gregorian calendar), William Tyndale, “William Tyndale other wise Called William Hychins vnto the Reader”, in The Obediẽce of a Christen Man […], [Antwerp]: [Johannes Hoochstraten]...
A Hominoidea primate other than a human.
(derogatory) An unintelligent or unsophisticated person, especially one who behaves irrationally or in an uncivilised manner.
1. (derogatory, ethnic, slur, highly offensive) A black person.
  - Animalistic dehumanisation, 'simianisation' and the animalising of black bodies through metaphorically likening these individuals to 'baboons,' 'monkeys' or 'apes' reveals racialised animality discourse in South Africa.2022 October, René Cornish, Kieran Tranter, “Dismissals for Social Media Hate Speech in South Africa: Animalistic Dehumanisation and the Circulation of Racist Words and Images”, in Springer Nature...
  - But he was worried about Leiter in the hands of those clumsy black apes.1954, Ian Fleming, “Mister Big”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 67
One who apes; a foolish imitator.
(Internet) A person who invests in meme stock, especially one who uses subreddits such as /r/wallstreetbets.
- I could not think of a better representation of the good in this world, let alone this r***^([sic]) band of apes on Reddit.2021 February 18, Kate Briquelet, Arya Hodjat, anonymous quotee, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Tears Into Robinhood CEO at GameStop Hearing: Meanwhile, Reddit's Roaring Kitty showed up for his...
- The tragic consequences of Bed Bath & Beyond's whiplashing fortunes have cast an even darker cloud over Cohen's reputation. But in all likelihood the meme-stock phenomenon is here to stay--even if Cohen and his ilk are profiting off the backs of the "apes" who support them.2022 September 12, Ryan Cohen, “The Money Game: Jen Wieczner”, in New York, volume 55, number 19, via EBSCOhost, →ISSN, pages 14-15

Verb

ape (third-person singular simple present apes, present participle aping or (uncommon) apeing, simple past and past participle aped)

(intransitive) To behave like an ape.
(transitive) To imitate or mimic, particularly to imitate poorly.
- And well their dignity it ſuits, / To ape the gravity of brutes.1772, [Thomas Bridges], “Something by Way of Preface”, in A Burlesque Translation of Homer, London: Printed for S. Hooper, […], →OCLC
- But there’s this difference; one is gold put to the use of paving-stones, and the other is tin polished to ape a service of silver.1847, Emily Brontë, chapter XXI, in Wuthering Heights

Adjective

ape (not comparable)

(slang) Wild; crazy.
- We were ape over the new look.
- He went ape when he heard the bad news.

Noun (2) capitalized: APE

APE (plural APEs)

(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of alkylphenol ethoxylate.
- The most important and commonly used APEs are nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), which account for 80% of the APE market.2008, Uri Zoller, Paul Sosis, editors, Handbook of Detergents, Part F: Production (Surfactant Science Series), CRC Press, →ISBN, page 66

ape meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Sanskrit

ape in Hindi

primate of the clade Hominoidea: कपि kapi, वानर vānar
any such primate other than a human: वानर vānar

ape in Urdu

primate of the clade Hominoidea: بَنْدَر bandar, وانَر vānar, کَپی kapī

ape in Punjabi

primate of the clade Hominoidea: ਬਣਮਾਣਸ baṇmāṇas

ape in Sanskrit

primate of the clade Hominoidea: कपि kapi

More languagesFewer languages

ape in Tagalog: bakulaw, ugaw
ape in Arabic: قِرْد qird, قِرْد بَشَرِيّ qird bašariyy
ape in Malay: mawas
ape in Indonesian: kera
ape in Persian: کپی کردن kapi kardan, تقلید کردن taqlid kardan
ape in Thai: ลิงไม่มีหาง ling-mâi-mii-hǎang, ลิง ling, จ๋อ jɔ̌ɔ
ape in Vietnamese: vượn, khỉ không đuôi

Examples of ape in a sentence

The argument that apes were incompetent investors was particularly reliant on one term: loss porn.2024 May, Linea Munk Petersen, “Everything you need to know about WallStreetBets: An explainer of the online forum behind the GameStop...
With the economy humming and the stock market near record highs, the “apes” are back—and “in full-on risk mode.”2025 August 8, “DORKs: The return of ‘meme stock’ mania”, in Week, volume 25, number 1247, via EBSCOhost, →ISSN, page 33:
Every year a paper or a book appears, bemoaning the fate of economics and complaining about its attempts to ape physics.2010, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 180:
Now we just need to create hype around the South Park Sucks Now digital coin, so we need to come up with things to give people FOMO and make them ape even harder.2025 October 31, Trey Parker, “The Woman in the Hat”, in South Park, season 28, episode 2, spoken by Kyle Schwartz:

All 40 example sentences with ape

Forms of ape

Noun
plural	apes
plural	APEs
Verb
third-person singular present	apes
present participle	aping
present participle uncommon	apeing
past participle	aped
past	aped

Plural of ape: apes

Origin of ape

From Middle English ape, from Old English apa (“ape, monkey”), from Proto-West Germanic *apō, from Proto-Germanic *apô (“monkey, ape”), possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- (“water”), compare Proto-Celtic *abū (“river”) (hence English place name Avon, Irish abha, Welsh afon), if the word originally referred to a "water sprite". Traditionally assumed to be an ancient loanword instead, ultimately probably from an unidentified non-Indo-European language of regions in Africa or Asia where monkeys are native. Cognate with Scots aip (“ape”), West Frisian aap (“ape”), Dutch aap (“monkey, ape”), Low German Ape (“ape”), German Affe (“monkey, ape”), Swedish apa (“monkey, ape”), Icelandic api (“ape”).

Clipping of apeshit (“ape-shit (crazy)”).

Words formed from ape

Phrases with ape

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with ape

21 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ape

What does ape mean?: Ape means an anthropoid of the superfamily Hominoidea, generally larger than monkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail.
What is ape in Hindi?: Ape in Hindi is कपि (kapi), वानर (vānar). See Ape meaning in Hindi.
How do you use ape in a sentence?: The argument that apes were incompetent investors was particularly reliant on one term: loss porn.
What part of speech is ape?: Ape can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce ape?: Ape is pronounced /eɪp/.
What is the plural of ape?: The plural of ape is apes.

Words near ape in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: ape (page history and authors); APE (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-ape.ogg.

Cite this entry: “ape.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ape. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.