primate
Syllables: pri·mate/ˈpɹaɪmeɪt/
primate noun: a mammal of the order Primates, comprising of apes (including humans), monkeys, lemurs, tarsiers, lorisids, and galagos.

Noun (1)
primate (plural primates)
Noun (2)
primate (plural primates)
- In the Catholic Church, a rare title conferred to or claimed by the sees of certain archbishops, or the highest-ranking bishop of a present or historical, usually political circumscription.
- The Archbishop of Quebec is the primate of Canada.
- In the Orthodox Church, the presiding bishop of an ecclesiastical jurisdiction or region. Usually, the expression primate refers to the first hierarch of an autocephalous or autonomous Orthodox church. Less often, it is used to refer to the ruling bishop of an archdiocese or diocese.
- In the Anglican Church, an archbishop, or the highest-ranking bishop of an ecclesiastic province.
primate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
primate in Hindi
- mammal
- नरवानर narvānar
primate in Tamil
- உயர் விலங்கினம், உயர்விலங்கு, முதனி
primate in Marathi
- प्राईमेट
primate in Urdu
- پرائمیٹ, پرائیمیٹ
More languagesFewer languages
- primate in Bengali
- নরবানর জাতীয় প্রাণী, উচ্চপদস্থ ধর্মযাজক
- primate in Telugu
- ప్రైమేట్, ప్రైమీట్
- primate in Malayalam
- പ്രൈമേറ്റ്, പ്രൈമെറ്റ്, പ്രൈമറ്റ്
- primate in Kannada
- ಪ್ರೈಮೇಟ್, ಪ್ರೈಮೀಟ್
- primate in Punjabi
- ਪ੍ਰਾਈਮੇਟ, ਪ੍ਰਾਇਮੇਟ, ਪ੍ਰਾਈਮੈਟ
- primate in Gujarati
- પ્રાઇમેટ, પ્રાઈમેટ, પ્રાયમેટ
- primate in Arabic
- رَئِيسِيَّات raʔīsiyyāt
- primate in Malay
- primat
- primate in Indonesian
- primata
- primate in Persian
- نخستیسان noxosti-sân, نخستی noxosti
- primate in Thai
- ไพรเมต prai-mèet
- primate in Vietnamese
- động vật có tay, động vật linh trưởng, tổng giám mục
- primate in Myanmar
- ပရိုင်းမိတ် pa.ruing:mit
Examples of primate in a sentence
- Lemurs are an e.g. of a non-simian primate.
- Most primates have a tail and fangs.
- Fossils show that the ancient primate Proconsul africanus, shown in the illustration above, was a tailless tree-dweller.
Forms of primate
| plural | primates |
|---|
Origin of primate
First attested in 1876. From French primate, from the substantivization of Latin prīmās, prīmātis (“one of the first, chief, excellent, noble”), same as Etymology 2. So named due to the belief that primates are the highest order of mammals or animals.
First attested in c. 1275. From Middle English primat(e), from Old French primat (French primat), from Late Latin prīmās, prīmātis (“chief bishop”), substantivisation of prīmās (same as Etymology 1), from prīmus (“prime, first in rank (also as a substantive)”). Compare English primus, of similar derivation and meaning.
Words formed from primate
- euprimate
- nonprimate
- pan-primate
- primatal
- primatelike
- primatology
- primatophilic
- subprimate
- superprimate
- super-primate
- supraprimate
- abbot primate
- archprimate
- primate city
- Primate of All England
- Primate of England
- Primate of the Gauls
- primateship
- primatical
- prince-primate
Phrases with primate
Questions about primate
- What does primate mean?
- Primate means a mammal of the order Primates, comprising of apes (including humans), monkeys, lemurs, tarsiers, lorisids, and galagos.
- What is primate in Hindi?
- Primate in Hindi is नरवानर (narvānar). See Primate meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is primate?
- Primate is a noun.
- How do you pronounce primate?
- Primate is pronounced /ˈpɹaɪmeɪt/.
- What is the plural of primate?
- The plural of primate is primates.
Words near primate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: primate (page history and authors); primate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); primate (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primate (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); primate (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primate (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primate (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primate (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); primate (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-primate.ogg, en-au-primate.ogg.
Cite this entry: “primate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/primate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
