Word.ws English Dictionary

rhesus

/ˈɹiːsəs/

rhesus noun: a macaque monkey native to southern and southeastern Asia; Macaca mulatta. Also the alternative form of Rhesus.

rhesus: a macaque monkey native to southern and southeastern Asia; Macaca mulatta
Image: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

rhesus (plural rhesuses)

  1. A macaque monkey native to southern and southeastern Asia; Macaca mulatta.

Noun (2) capitalized: Rhesus

Rhesus

  1. (also, attributive) Denotes a system for categorising human blood types based on the presence or absence of various antigens, especially Rhesus factor D.
    Synonyms:
    Rh

Also used as

rhesus is also the alternative form of Rhesus.

Synonyms of rhesus

Forms of rhesus

pluralrhesuses

Origin of rhesus

From New Latin rhēsus, arbitrary formation from Latin Rhēsus, from Ancient Greek Ῥῆσος (Rhêsos), mythical Thracian king.

So named because the first identified antigen (RhD) was originally believed to be the same as one discovered in rhesus macaques.

Words formed from rhesus

Phrases with rhesus

Words that rhyme with rhesus

Questions about rhesus

What does rhesus mean?
Rhesus means a macaque monkey native to southern and southeastern Asia; Macaca mulatta.
What part of speech is rhesus?
Rhesus is a noun.
How do you pronounce rhesus?
Rhesus is pronounced /ˈɹiːsəs/.
What is the plural of rhesus?
The plural of rhesus is rhesuses.

Words near rhesus in the dictionary

  1. rheotypic
  2. rheovirus
  3. rhEPO
  4. rheses
  5. rhesis
  6. rhesus
  7. Rhesus factor
  8. Rhesus factors
  9. rhesus macaque
  10. rhesus macaques
  11. rhesus monkey

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rhesus (page history and authors); Rhesus (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-rhesus.wav.

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