Word.ws English Dictionary

prehensile

UK/pɹɪˈhɛn.saɪl//pɹiˈhɛnsəl/

prehensile adjective: able to take hold of and clasp objects; adapted for grasping especially by wrapping around an object.

Adjective

prehensile (not comparable)

  1. Able to take hold of and clasp objects; adapted for grasping especially by wrapping around an object.
    • Some monkeys have prehensile tails which they use to pick things up.

prehensile meaning in Tamil, Kannada and Indonesian

prehensile in Tamil

பற்று

prehensile in Kannada

ಹಿಡಿಯಬಲ್ಲ, ಹಿಡಿಯತಕ್ಕ

prehensile in Indonesian

able to take hold of objects
melilit

Origin of prehensile

Borrowed from French préhensile, from Latin perfect passive participle prehēnsus, from prehendō (“grasp, seize”) + adjective suffix -ile, from Latin -ilis.

Words formed from prehensile

Questions about prehensile

What does prehensile mean?
Prehensile means able to take hold of and clasp objects; adapted for grasping especially by wrapping around an object.
What is prehensile in Tamil?
Prehensile in Tamil is பற்று. See Prehensile meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is prehensile?
Prehensile is an adjective.
How do you pronounce prehensile?
Prehensile is pronounced /pɹɪˈhɛn.saɪl/ (UK).

Words near prehensile in the dictionary

  1. prehended
  2. prehending
  3. prehends
  4. prehensibility
  5. prehensible
  6. prehensile
  7. prehensilely
  8. prehensility
  9. prehensily
  10. prehension
  11. prehensions

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prehensile (page history and authors); prehensile (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prehensile (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: en-us-prehensile.ogg.

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