Definition of APE

Choose the Right Synonym for ape

Verb

copy, imitate, mimic, ape, mock mean to make something so that it resembles an existing thing. copy suggests duplicating an original as nearly as possible. copied the painting and sold the fake as an original imitate suggests following a model or a pattern but may allow for some variation. imitate a poet's style mimic implies a close copying (as of voice or mannerism) often for fun, ridicule, or lifelike imitation. pupils mimicking their teacher ape may suggest presumptuous, slavish, or inept imitating of a superior original. American fashion designers aped their European colleagues mock usually implies imitation with derision. mocking a vain man's pompous manner

Examples of ape in a Sentence

Noun

Her boyfriend's some big ape she met at a party.

Verb

She apes the speech and manners of the rich. was caught aping the substitute teacher's thick accent

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Monkeys also have tails, which apes lost through evolution. — Bridget Alex, Discover Magazine, "A Primer to Our Planet of Monkeys," 12 June 2019 At first the apes approached the drum with trepidation, but once the researchers and zoo staff started demonstrating, the bonobos were rapt. — Quanta Magazine, "The Beasts That Keep the Beat," 22 Mar. 2016 Among all apes, humans have one of the most energy-taxing pregnancies due to a combination of the length of gestation and the size of our babies. — Daniel Wolfe, Quartz, "Pregnancy pushes the body nearly as much as extreme endurance sports," 6 June 2019 In all cases, the apes accessed the meat through the bottom of the carapace, breaking a part technically called the plastron. — Douglas Main, National Geographic, "In a first, chimpanzees seen smashing and eating tortoises," 23 May 2019 No other species points, Novack explained, not even chimpanzees or apes, according to most reports, unless they are raised by people. — Quanta Magazine, "How the Brain Links Gestures, Perception and Meaning," 25 Mar. 2019 That’s a level not seen on this planet since the Middle Miocene, 16 million years ago, when our ancestors were apes. — Howard Lee, Ars Technica, "What happened last time it was as warm as it’s going to get later this century?," 18 June 2018 Planet of the apes Ancestors: A Humankind Odyssey, the experimental-looking project from Patrice Desilets, also received an August release date this week. — Hayden Dingman, PCWorld, "This week in games: Sims 4 for free, a Just Cause film, and Frostbite's hairy tech demo," 24 May 2019 The zoological term primate refers to the order of mammals that includes humans, gorillas, apes, gibbons, and monkeys, among other species. — Brett Clarkson, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Zoo Miami's oldest primate, a gibbon called Prisilla, dies at almost 50," 5 June 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

Spikes of creamy white astilbe mimicked Mona Lisa’s skin tone, and the long seed heads of the andromeda aped her fingers and added a tawny layer. — Lindsey Taylor, WSJ, "If the ‘Mona Lisa’ Were Made of Flowers...," 7 Aug. 2018 Ostpunk was crude and derivative, but the Ostpunks were doing more than aping Western poses. — Dominic Green, WSJ, "‘Burning Down the Haus’ Review: East German Punks," 20 Sep. 2018 Both parties signed the form and put their fingerprints on it, dipping their index fingers into bright purple ink, a gesture that aped one of the bureaucratic procedures of the Iraqi government. — Rukmini Callimachi, New York Times, "The Case of the Purloined Poultry: How ISIS Prosecuted Petty Crime," 1 July 2018 Gillespie, who went on to ape some of Stewart’s hard-edge messaging, lost by a landslide to Democrat Ralph Northam in November. — Laura Vozzella, Washington Post, "‘My opponent likes to praise and encourage white supremacists,’ Kaine tells crowd.," 17 June 2018 And Mr Ortega is aping the repression of the Somozas. — The Economist, "Daniel Ortega is causing a bloodbath in Nicaragua," 12 July 2018 Lumberjacks and the hipster bartenders who ape their style have long favored Pendleton’s flannel overshirts. — Jacob Gallagher, WSJ, "When It’s Super-Hot, This is Your Workwear Solution," 21 June 2018 Many of its propaganda tools merely aped the sorts of chauvinist and ethno-nationalist sentiment that Mr Trump and other right-wing politicians have long used to charge up their base. — The Economist, "The Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki," 5 July 2018 Facebook’s tendency to ape competing products can be a major threat to smaller companies; Snapchat’s recent troubles have been attributed in part to Facebook copying many of its features. — Bloomberg, Fortune, "Tinder's Parent Company Is Buying an Anti-Tinder Dating App," 21 June 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective

For the next few million years, the brains of early hominins did not grow much larger than those of our ape ancestors and cousins. — Quanta Magazine, "How Humans Evolved Supersize Brains," 10 Nov. 2015 Bigfoot, described as an evolutionary link between humans and our ape ancestors, is a staple of indigenous American folklore who has miraculously survived into modernity. — Ephrat Livni, Quartz, "The FBI has released 22 pages of its investigation into Bigfoot," 9 June 2019 Why are characters always going in circles, whether physical (jogging astronaut) or metaphorical (repetitious ape routines)? — Peter Opaskar, Ars Technica, "2001 in 70mm: Pod bay doors look better than ever, still won’t open," 21 July 2018 In these tales, the animals are sometimes more human-like and, other times, more ape-like. — Matt Blitz, Popular Mechanics, "Science Meets Legend: The Story of Our Search for Bigfoot," 8 Oct. 2018 In the fourth toe, the metatarsal head was domed just like a modern human’s, but other aspects of the shape of the bone looked more ape-like. — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, "The road to bipedalism wasn’t straight and narrow," 15 Aug. 2018 And the shape of the big toe stayed decidedly more ape-like until much later in our lineage, too. — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, "The road to bipedalism wasn’t straight and narrow," 15 Aug. 2018 Orangutan If there was ever a time to compare this activity to The Truman Show, watching our seemingly self-aware ape friend at the San Diego Zoo would be it. — The Editors, Outside Online, "The Definitive Ranking of the Best Animal Livestreams," 14 June 2018 Here’s just one component — research shows that the perception of black people as subhuman and ape-like directly informs the public’s view of whether police brutality against a black suspect is deserved. — Ellen Mcgirt, Fortune, "raceAhead: Can Starbucks Change America?," 31 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ape.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.