Word.ws English Dictionary

bonobo

Syllables: bo·no·bo/bəˈnəʊ̯ˌbəʊ̯/US/bəˈnoʊ̯ˌboʊ̯/

bonobo noun: a great ape, Pan paniscus, from Africa south of the Congo river.

bonobo: a great ape, Pan paniscus, from Africa south of the Congo river
Image: Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

bonobo (plural bonobos)

  1. A great ape, Pan paniscus, from Africa south of the Congo river.

bonobo meaning in Assamese, Thai and Vietnamese

bonobo in Assamese

pygmy chimpanzee
বন’ব’ bonöbö

bonobo in Thai

pygmy chimpanzee
โบโนโบ boo-noo-boo

bonobo in Vietnamese

pygmy chimpanzee
tinh tinh lùn

Synonyms of bonobo

Forms of bonobo

pluralbonobos

Origin of bonobo

From Bolobo, a village on the Congo River where Europeans first made contact with the species. Bolobo is possibly imitative of the bubbling of the rapids at that section of the Congo.

Questions about bonobo

What does bonobo mean?
Bonobo means a great ape, Pan paniscus, from Africa south of the Congo river.
What is bonobo in Assamese?
Bonobo in Assamese is বন’ব’ (bonöbö). See Bonobo meaning in Assamese.
What part of speech is bonobo?
Bonobo is a noun.
How do you pronounce bonobo?
Bonobo is pronounced /bəˈnəʊ̯ˌbəʊ̯/ (UK).
What is the plural of bonobo?
The plural of bonobo is bonobos.

Words near bonobo in the dictionary

  1. Bonnyrigg Heights
  2. Bonnys
  3. Bonnyton
  4. Bonnyville
  5. Bono
  6. bonobo
  7. bonoboes
  8. bonobos
  9. Bonomo
  10. Bonomos
  11. Bononian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bonobo (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bonobo.wav.

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