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ape

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Any such primate other than a human.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ayp
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈeɪp

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Any such primate other than a human.

  2. A primate of the superfamily Hominoidea, generally larger than monkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail.

  3. Any of various primates with short tails or no tail at all

  4. One who apes; a foolish imitator.

verb

  1. Imitate uncritically and in every aspect

    “Her little brother apes her behavior.”

  2. transitive

    To imitate or mimic, particularly to imitate poorly.

  3. intransitive

    To behave like an ape.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Any such primate other than a human.

Used this way, ape is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use ape

  • “Her little brother apes her behavior.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

hairy apeape languagegiant apeape species

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: any such primate other than a human

caricature

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.