monkey

Syllables: monk·eyUK/ˈmʌŋki/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/ˈmʊŋki/

monkey noun: a member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails, and cheek pouches.

Image: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

monkey (plural monkeys or (obsolete) monkies)

(strictly) A member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails, and cheek pouches.
- He had been visiting an area zoo when a monkey swung from its tree perch, swiped his glasses and hurled them into a hippo hole.
- They thought of, I don’t know, monkeys and caipirinhas and samba.”2007 September 20, Eric Wilson, “Blame It on Rio and Gisele”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 18 Sep 2020
Any simian, including humans.
(broadly, proscribed, sometimes) Any simian primate other than hominids; any monkey or ape.
- Chimpanzees are known to form bands to hunt and kill other monkeys.
(figuratively, informal, offensive, sometimes, generally derogatory) A naughty or mischievous person, especially a child.
- Stop misbehaving, you cheeky little monkey!
- "Yes. He gets to Paris at seven in the morning. He promised to telephone the first thing."
  "You expensive little monkey!"
  "Why?"
  "It's ten shillings for three minutes, or something like that, and you have to go to the G.P.O. or the Mansion House or some such place, I believe."1909, Algernon Blackwood, You May Telephone From Here
(figuratively, slang, generally derogatory) The person in the motorcycle sidecar in sidecar racing.
(derogatory, figuratively, generally derogatory) Synonym of idiot: a person of minimal intelligence.

Synonyms:

idiot
(derogatory, figuratively, generally derogatory) Synonym of uggo: an unattractive person, especially one whose face supposedly resembles a monkey's.

Synonyms:

uggo
(derogatory, figuratively, slang, generally derogatory) Synonym of puppet: a person dancing to another's tune, a person controlled or directed by another.
- No, no, no, not you. I want to talk to the organ grinder, not the monkey.
Synonyms:

puppet
(derogatory, figuratively, slang, usually, generally derogatory) A menial employee who does a repetitive job supposedly requiring minimal intelligence.
- code monkey
- grease monkey
(ethnic, figuratively, offensive, slang, slur, generally derogatory) 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...
(slang, uncommon, vulgar) A penis.
(historical) A small trading vessel of the sixteenth century.

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(slang) The vessel in which a mess receives its full allowance of grog.
The weight of a pile driver or drop hammer.
- Someone handed me a monkey of grog. I forced myself to sip it, not down it.2007, Broos Campbell, No Quarter, page 111
A fluid consisting of hydrochloric acid and zinc, used in the process of soldering.
(slang) Synonym of five hundred, especially (UK) 500 pounds sterling or (US, dated) 500 dollars.
- [I] gave her a monkey — just half my last thou — and started to earn some more.1918, Aleister Crowley, Robbing Miss Horniman
- A thousandth of a million squid or two monkeys
  Or a whole fifty scores2004, The Streets, “It Was Supposed to Be So Easy”, in A Grand Don’t Come for Free
Synonyms:

five hundred
Synonym of face card.

Synonyms:

face card
(slang) A person's temper, said to be "up" when they are angry.
- I was out rather late one night, when the foreman of my department, who owed me a grudge, abused me like a dog, and told me I might consider myself dismissed, and that I should be paid my wages in the morning. I don't know how I kept my hands off him, for my monkey was up; […]1864, Eneas Sweetland Dallas, Once a Week, volume 11, page 267
- Reminded me of running up that hill by the Marne – or was it the Morin? – in 1914 when Kearey had got his face ripped open by a bullet and Hedley had got his monkey up [Lost his temper, Ed.] over the Huns killing 8 of my platoon.2019, John Hughes-Wilson, 1918 - Defeat into Victory: A Tommy Gunn Adventure, page 98
(slang) A drug habit; an addiction; a compulsion.
- Monkey: a habit, as in "I have a monkey on my back." Usually used when one is sick from lack of drugs.1938, Alfred R. Lindesmith, "Argot of the Underworld Drug Addict", Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 29, Issue 2 (July-August)
- "Man, I wasn't hooked, I was crucified. The monkey got so big he was carryin' me. […] When I hear a junkie tell me he wants to kick the habit but he just can't I know he lies even if he don't know he does. He wants to carry the monkey, he's punishin' hisself for somethin' 'n don't even know it. […]...
- "The monkey's never dead, Fixer," Frankie told him knowingly.1949, Nelson Algren, The Man with The Golden Arm
A dance popularized by Major Lance in 1963, now usually only its upper-body dance move involving exaggerated drumming motions.
- Do the Monkey, yeah,
  Do the Monkey, yeah,
  Ah, twist them hips,
  Let your backbone slip,
  Now move your feet,
  Get on the beat...1963, Curtis Mayfield, "The Monkey Time" (video)
- C'mon everybody! C'mon in!
  Bobby's goin' to show you how to do the swim.
  Kinda like the monkey, kinda like the twist
  Pretend you're in the water and you go like this.1964, “C'mon and Swim”, Thomas Coman and Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone) (lyrics), performed by Bobby Freeman

Verb

monkey (third-person singular simple present monkeys, present participle monkeying, simple past and past participle monkeyed or monkied)

(informal, intransitive) To meddle; to mess (with).
- Please don't monkey with the controls if you don't know what you're doing.
- “As an inventor,” Bob Mason suggested, “you're a howling success at shooting craps! […] Why monkey with weak imitations when you can come close to the original?”1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter XII, in The Understanding Heart
Synonyms:

interfere, fiddle
(transitive) To mimic; to ape.
- He winked at Liza, who monkeyed him, holding her own eye shut.2011, Elizabeth Mosier, The Playgroup, page 83

Proper noun capitalized: Monkey

Monkey

The ninth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.

monkey meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

monkey in Hindi

primate: बंदर m or बन्दर bandar, वानर vānar, कपि kapi, मर्कट markaṭ, बानर bānar

monkey in Tamil

primate: குரங்கு kuraṅku
mischievous child: குரங்கு kuraṅku, வாண்டு vāṇṭu
to meddle, mess with: நோண்டு nōṇṭu

monkey in Urdu

primate: بَنْدَر bandar

More languagesFewer languages

monkey in Bengali: বাঁদর bãdor
monkey in Telugu: కోతి kōti, వానరము vānaramu
monkey in Malayalam: കുരങ്ങന് kuraṅṅanŭ, കുരങ്ങ് kuraṅṅŭ
monkey in Kannada: ಕಪಿ kapi, ಕೋತಿ kōti, ಹರಿ hari
monkey in Punjabi: ਬਾਂਦਰ bāndar, بانْدَر bāndar
monkey in Gujarati: વાનર vānar, વાંદરું vā̃drũ
monkey in Odia: ବାନର bānara
monkey in Sanskrit: वानर vānara, कपि kapi
monkey in Sinhala: වඳුරා waⁿdurā
monkey in Assamese: বান্দৰ bandor
monkey in Nepali: गुनु gunu
monkey in Pashto: بيزو bizo
monkey in Tagalog: unggoy, tsonggo
monkey in Arabic: سَعْدَان saʕdān, قِرْد qird, حِبْن ḥibn, نِسْنَاس nisnās
monkey in Malay: monyet, kera, cewe kerek, ketek
monkey in Indonesian: kera, monyet
monkey in Thai: ลิง ling
monkey in Vietnamese: khỉ
monkey in Myanmar: မျောက် myauk
Dhivehi: ރާމާމަކުނު rāmāmakunu
Kashmiri: وانٛدُر vāndur

Examples of monkey in a sentence

Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey.
I thought I would like to learn about the dope scene anyway, and the boy must have some character, you know, if he got the monkey off his back (as they used to say in our time) without outside help.1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 431:
Do the monkey, do the pony / Do the slop, do the boogaloo twist.1971, “Suicide Song”, in Loudon Wainwright III (lyrics), Album II, performed by Loudon Wainwright III:

All 40 example sentences with monkey

Synonyms of monkey

All synonyms of monkey

Forms of monkey

Noun
plural	monkeys
plural (obsolete)	monkies
alternative form (obsolete)	monky
alternative form (archaic)	monkie
Verb
third-person singular present	monkeys
present participle	monkeying
past participle	monkeyed
past	monkeyed
past participle	monkied
past	monkied

Plural of monkey: monkeys

Origin of monkey

Uncertain: * May be derived from monk + -ey (diminutive suffix), * or borrowed from Middle Low German Moneke, the name of the son of Martin the Ape in Reynard the Fox (which may represent an unattested colloquial Middle Low German *moneke, *moneken), itself of uncertain origin: ** Possibly derived from a Romance term represented by Late Middle French monne (whence Modern French mone (“monkey”)) or earlier Old French monnekin (“monkey”), originally Monnekin, the name of a monkey in Li Dis d'Entendement. Compare also Old French and Middle French monin (“monkey”). *** The French terms may have been borrowed from Italian monna (“monkey”), from Old Spanish mona (“female monkey”), itself a shortening of mamona, variant of maimón, from Arabic مَيْمُون (maymūn, “baboon”)). *** However, Old French monnekin may alternatively be unrelated to the other terms, instead being a borrowing of Early Middle Dutch mannekin (a diminutive of man, literally “little human”), and if so monkey is a doublet of mannequin; see modern Dutch manneken.

Words formed from monkey

Phrases with monkey

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Words that rhyme with monkey

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Questions about monkey

What does monkey mean?: Monkey means a member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails, and cheek pouches.
What is monkey in Hindi?: Monkey in Hindi is बंदर m or बन्दर (bandar), वानर (vānar), कपि (kapi). See Monkey meaning in Hindi.
How do you use monkey in a sentence?: Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey.
What part of speech is monkey?: Monkey can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce monkey?: Monkey is pronounced /ˈmʌŋki/ (UK).
What is the plural of monkey?: The plural of monkey is monkeys.

Words near monkey in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: monkey (page history and authors); Monkey (page history and authors); ಕಪಿ (Kannada) (page history and authors); गुनु (Nepali) (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-monkey.ogg.

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