ape

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noun

ˈāp

: any of various large tailless semi-erect primates of Africa and southeastern Asia (such as the chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, or gibbon)

called also anthropoid, anthropoid ape

compare great ape

: monkey

especially : one of the larger tailless or short-tailed Old World forms

—not used technically

: mimic

: a large uncouth person

apelike

ˈāp-ˌlīk

adjective

ape

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verb

aped; aping

transitive verb

: to copy closely but often clumsily and ineptly

aper noun

ape

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adjective

: crazy, wild

—usually used in the phrase go ape

Choose the Right Synonym for ape

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, unoriginal, 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

Example Sentences

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

After a fight with the rival troop, an ape hurls the bone into the sky and, in a smooth split-second transition, the object becomes a satellite floating in space. —

Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 1 Dec. 2022 One work at Springfield, for example, is a puzzling collage by Michelle Williams Gamaker that depicts an ape overlaid with clusters of fruit, flowers and Greek statuary. —

Alex Marshall, New York Times, 17 Nov. 2022 Japan’s antiquated rape laws and institutions, and the Hoolock Gibbons, India’s fast-vanishing ape species. —

Addie Morfoot, Variety, 23 Sep. 2022 The team asked a human experimenter to peer at the ceiling while sitting near an infant or an ape. —

Anna Rogers, Discover Magazine, 21 Apr. 2022 The giant ape first appeared on film in 1933 and has since been immortalized in everything from comics to video games. —

cleveland, 25 June 2022 From ape to human, the brain grows about fourfold, but most of that increase occurs in the cortex, not in more ancient structures. —

Richard Granger, Discover Magazine, 31 Oct. 2022 Something went wrong for Fay Wray and you-know-who in this classic 1933 adventure about a great big ape running amok in Manhattan. —

Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2022 The Celestials, gigantic and inscrutable ur-gods, created both the Eternals and their nemeses, the Deviants, alongside humanity but distinct from it, from a prehistoric ape. —

Nola Pfau, Vulture, 15 Jan. 2022

Verb

So while other candidates may ape his style or tone, Trump remains sui generis. —

Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 15 Feb. 2023 There simply isn’t enough time to see what the other player does and make a conscious decision to ape it. —

Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 19 July 2011 The newspaper had hired two teams of Marines — one from the Navy Yard, the other from the Marine Corps Barracks — to ape the action at the Polo Grounds in New York, where the New York Giants would be facing the New York Yankees. —

John Kelly, Washington Post, 15 Oct. 2022 Not every crook has a skilled mimic on call to ape the brushstrokes of Titian or Twombly. —

Julie Belcove, Robb Report, 28 Aug. 2022 The Ohio race was particularly insane: a half-dozen candidates reportedly spent at least sixty-six million dollars, and many of them tried to ape Trump’s style and seek his endorsement. —

The New Yorker, 4 May 2022 As Vivian, Olivia Valli wears replicas of the same outfits that Julia Roberts wore in the movie, but doesn’t ape her movements or mannerisms. —

Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 28 Apr. 2022 Indeed, Isbell, a former Muscle Shoals resident now based in Nashville, is more of a rocker than the Americana strummers who ape him. —

Matt Wake | Mwake@al.com, al, 12 Jan. 2022 He’s been replaced by a second Samurai who uses technology to ape the original’s powers, but nobody cares. —

Tribune News Service, cleveland, 11 Dec. 2021

Adjective

The same is true of their treatment of Number One, Luther, who is gravely harmed on a doomed solo mission and injected with a life-saving experimental serum that transforms his body into that of an ape-human hybrid. —

Crispin Long, The New Yorker, 12 July 2022 Each faces resistance from his own side, since anti-ape prejudice is still part of the formerly dominant species’ worldview. —

New York Times, 13 May 2021 But now the world’s gorillas, and also their great-ape cousins, the chimpanzees, bonobos and orang-utans, face another threat from their human neighbours: covid-19. —

The Economist, 16 May 2020 But a close analysis of the rounded head of the femur revealed that their hips were carrying weight differently and much more ape-like by hanging out in trees. —

Ashley Strickland, CNN, 2 Apr. 2020 Every hominin species in the fossil record has its own unique mix of familiar human traits and more ape-like ones, shaped by their environments and lifestyles. —

Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 30 Mar. 2020 Walking upright on two legs is considered a human trait that separates us from our ape relatives, like chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. —

Ashley Strickland, CNN, 2 Apr. 2020 That species was an early member of our genus who walked upright and had a mixture of human and ape-like features. —

Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 3 Feb. 2020 The fire started in a corner of the ape house’s roof in the first minutes of the new year and spread rapidly. —

Washington Post, 2 Jan. 2020 See More

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.