vervet

noun

ver·​vet ˈvər-vət 

plural vervets

: a long-tailed diurnal omnivorous monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) of eastern and southern Africa that has silver-gray or yellowish to greenish-brown hair and a black face ringed in white fur and that is sometimes used in medical research

broadly : a related monkey (such as a grivet or green monkey)

Illustration of vervet

• green monkey or vervet

Examples of vervet in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Previously a private livestock ranch, Lolldaiga became a conservancy in 2021 and is home to the endangered Grevy’s zebra, elephants, buffaloes, lions, hyenas, jackals, vervet monkeys and baboons. —Larry Madowo, CNN Money, 21 Aug. 2025

Back at camp, vervet monkeys had heard word of a new kitchen in town and were keen to join us for breakfast. —Heather Richardson, Travel + Leisure, 18 May 2025

Guests can tee off beside a centuries-old windmill on the Robert Trent Jones II golf course, sip rare Caribbean rums at a beachfront bar, or take a tour to see the island’s famous green vervet monkeys. —Laura Begley Bloom, AFAR Media, 27 Feb. 2025

However, the vervet population faces significant challenges. —Samantha Dee, Sun Sentinel, 9 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French, probably from vert "green" + -vet (in grivet grivet) — more at verdant

Note: The word was probably introduced by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Frédéric Cuvier in Histoire naturelle des mammifères, tome troisième (Paris, 1824), unnumbered plate and accompanying text (dated "janvier 1821"). Cuvier had described and presumably named the grivet in the first volume of the work.

First Known Use

1893, in the meaning defined above