Word.ws English Dictionary

naked ape

naked ape noun: a human being.

Noun

naked ape (plural naked apes)

  1. (humorous, idiomatic) A human being.
    • What, after all, can a poor naked ape do?1969, David H. Stewart, “The Decline of WASP Literature in America”, in College English, volume 30, number 6, page 412
    • Humans are unique among the monkeys and apes in lacking a dense layer of hair covering their bodies.2003, M. Pagel and W. Bodmer, "A Naked Ape Would Have Fewer Parasites," Proceedings: Biological Sciences, Vol. 270, Supplement: Biology Letters, p. S117

Synonyms of naked ape

Forms of naked ape

pluralnaked apes

Origin of naked ape

From naked + ape, reportedly coined by Desmond Morris in his book The Naked Ape (1967).

Questions about naked ape

What does naked ape mean?
Naked ape means a human being.
What part of speech is naked ape?
Naked ape is a noun.
What is the plural of naked ape?
The plural of naked ape is naked apes.

Words near naked ape in the dictionary

  1. nakba
  2. Nakba Day
  3. nakbas
  4. nake
  5. naked
  6. naked ape
  7. naked apes
  8. naked apron
  9. naked aprons
  10. naked as a jay
  11. naked as a jay bird

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: naked 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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