Word.ws English Dictionary

great ape

great ape noun: a large non-human primate, such as a gorilla, an orangutan, or a chimpanzee.

Noun

great ape (plural great apes)

  1. (archaic) A large non-human primate, such as a gorilla, an orangutan, or a chimpanzee.
  2. Any member of the taxonomic family Hominidae, including gorilla, orangutan, chimpanzee, excluding Homo.
    • Long before people thought in terms of evolution […] great apes were often confused with humans.2005, Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor's Tale, page 114
  3. Any member of the taxonomic family Hominidae, including Homo, and also many similar extinct species.
    • This wrinkled layer of gray matter that's highly developed in humans and other great apes, as well as whales, dolphins, and elephants, helps coordinate complex cognitive processes.2014, Laurel Braitman, Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves
    Synonyms:
    hominid

Synonyms of great ape

Forms of great ape

pluralgreat apes

Questions about great ape

What does great ape mean?
Great ape means a large non-human primate, such as a gorilla, an orangutan, or a chimpanzee.
What part of speech is great ape?
Great ape is a noun.
What is the plural of great ape?
The plural of great ape is great apes.

Words near great ape in the dictionary

  1. Great and Little Hampden
  2. Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh
  3. Great and Little Leighs
  4. great antshrike
  5. great antshrikes
  6. great ape
  7. great apes
  8. Great Apostasy
  9. great arteries
  10. great artery
  11. Great Artesian Basin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: great 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.

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