Word.ws English Dictionary

primate

Syllables: pri·mate/ˈpɹaɪmeɪt/

primate noun: a mammal of the order Primates, comprising of apes (including humans), monkeys, lemurs, tarsiers, lorisids, and galagos.

primate: a mammal of the order Primates, comprising of apes (including humans), monkeys, lemurs, tarsiers,...
Image: Martin Fisch from Wiesbaden, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

primate (plural primates)

  1. A mammal of the order Primates, comprising of apes (including humans), monkeys, lemurs, tarsiers, lorisids, and galagos.
    • Primates range from lemurs to gorillas.
  2. (informal) An anthropoid; ape including human.

Noun (2)

primate (plural primates)

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

All 40 example sentences with primate

Forms of primate

pluralprimates

Plural of primate: 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

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

  1. primases
  2. primastic
  3. Primat
  4. primatal
  5. primatals
  6. primate
  7. primate cities
  8. primate city
  9. primatelike
  10. primates
  11. primateship

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.

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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.