Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Chimpanzee |
ChimpanzeeNoun1. Intelligent somewhat arboreal ape of equatorial African forests. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "chimpanzee" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1870. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Biology & Biotechnology | A man-like ape of tropical West and Central Africa. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Chimpanzee Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Family: Hominidae Genus: Pan Species: troglodytes Species Pan troglodytes The chimpanzee (or "chimp") is one of two species of great apes; Pan troglodytes (the common chimpanzee) and Pan paniscus (the Bonobo, formerly called pygmy chimpanzee). Biologists believe that chimpanzees are our closest evolutionary relatives; they branched off from our latest common ancestor as recently as 4 to 7 million years ago, and we share 98-99.4% of our DNA with them, which prompted Jared Diamond to use the term "the third chimpanzee" for our own species. Some believe that assigning chimpanzees to a different genus or even family than humans, a taxonomic division that goes back to Linnaeus and that he later regretted, is not justified on biological grounds, and in fact amounts to an instance of anthropocentrism.
Pan paniscus was not recognized as an independent species until quite recently, and in common language the designation "chimpanzee" often applies to both apes. Primatologists prefer to reserve the name "chimpanzee" for Pan troglodytes. Anatomical differences between the two species are slight, but in sexual and social behaviour there are some marked distinctions. For example, P. troglodytes has a troop hunting culture based on beta males led by a relatively weak alpha, an omnivorous diet, and a complex culture with long bonds.
P. paniscus chimps, on the other hand, are notoriously individualistic and sexually promiscuous. Several subspecies of chimpanzees have been recognized, but there is no agreement among biologists as to their classification.
Basic facts
Chimpanzees are found in the tropical forests and wet savannahs of Western and Central Africa. They used to inhabit most of this region, but their habitat has been dramatically reduced in recent years.
Adult chimpanzees can measure up to 130 cm (females) or 160 cm (males), and adults weigh between 40 and 70 kg, but are much stronger than humans. Their body is covered by a coarse dark brown fur, except for the face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands and soles of the feet. Both their thumbs and their big toes are opposable, allowing a precision grip. The gestation period is 8 months. Infants are weaned when they are about 3 years old, but usually maintain a close relationship with their mother for several years more. Puberty is reached at the age of 8-10, and their lifespan in captivity is about 50 years.
Chimpanzees live in troops, hierarchical groups that range from about 20 to more than 100 members, consisting of several males, females and juveniles. However, most of the time they travel around in small parties of just a few individuals. They are both arboreal and terrestrial, spending equal time in the trees and on the ground. Their habitual gait is quadrupedal, using the soles of their feet and resting on their knuckles, but they can walk upright for a short distance.
Their diet is mainly vegetarian (fruit, leaves, nuts, seeds, tubers...), supplemented by insects and small prey; there are instances of hunting. In some cases—such as killing leopard cubs—this hunting seems to be primarily a protective effort by the chimpanzees, rather than being motivated by hunger. However, chimpanzees sometimes band together and hunt rhesus monkeys for meat; this shows that they are capable of group hunting like humans, and have a taste for flesh. Isolated cases of cannibalism have been documented.
See also:
- Distribution
- Social life
- Sexual behaviour
- Cognitive skills:
- Language
- Tool use
- Jane Goodall
- List of famous chimpanzees
External Link:
- Jane Goodall web site.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Chimpanzee."
Synonym: ChimpanzeeSynonym: chimp (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Chimpanzee |
| English words defined with "chimpanzee": bonobo ♦ Koolokamba ♦ Pan paniscus, pygmy chimpanzee ♦ Soko ♦ Tschego. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "chimpanzee": Quarll. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | In high school I was voted most likely to be a mental patient, hillbilly or chimpanzee! (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Bostock's Educated Chimpanzee (1902) The Educated Chimpanzee (1901) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
 |
| "Arthur" by Filip Schneider Commentary: "Sitting chimpanzee arthur. b&w." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Play | Caption |
 | Scared chimpanzee screaming and whimpering. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | A dead chimpanzee found in the forest at the time was determined to be infected. (references) | |
Situation - Scientist became ill after conducting an autopsy on a wild chimpanzee in the Tai Forest. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Chimpanzee" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Chimpanzee" is used about 158 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 158 | 24,965 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "chimpanzee": central chimpanzee ♦ eastern chimpanzee ♦ pygmy chimpanzee ♦ western chimpanzee. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "chimpanzee": chimpanzee-gorilla, chimpanzee-human, chimpanzee-like. | |
Ending with "chimpanzee": human-chimpanzee. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "chimpanzee"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | sjimpansee. (various references) | |
Albanian | shimpanze. (various references) | |
Arabic | البعام شيمبانزي, شيمبانزي قرد. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | шимпанзе. (various references) | |
Chamorro | saro'. (various references) | |
Chinese | 黑猩猩. (various references) | |
Czech | šimpanz. (various references) | |
Danish | chimpanse. (various references) | |
Dutch | chimpansee. (various references) | |
Esperanto | ĉimpanzo. (various references) | |
Farsi | میمون ادم وار(ج.ش.), شمپانزه . (various references) | |
Finnish | simpanssi. (various references) | |
French | chimpanzé. (various references) | |
German | schimpanse (chimp). (various references) | |
Greek | χιμπατζήσ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | שימפנזה. (various references) | |
Hungarian | csimpánz (chimp, Jocko). (various references) | |
Indonesian | kera (ape, monkey). (various references) | |
Italian | scimpanzé. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 黒猩猩 , 黒猩々 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | くろしょうじょう. (various references) | |
Korean | 침팬지. (various references) | |
Manx | chimpansee, apag ghooinoil. (various references) | |
Papiamen | chimpansé. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | impanzeechay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | chimpanzé (jocko). (various references) | |
Romanian | cimpanzeu. (various references) | |
Russian | шимпанзе. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | šimpanza (chimp). (various references) | |
Spanish | chimpance, chimpancé, chimpanc/e, mono de chimpancé. (various references) | |
Swedish | schimpans (Jocko). (various references) | |
Turkish | şempanze (chimp). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | шимпанзе. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "chimpanzee": chimpanzees. (additional references) | |
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"Chimpanzee" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: chimpenze, chinpanze, Chipande, chipanzee, schimpanse. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "chimpanzee" (pronounced khi'mpa"nzē) |
| 5 | -p a" n z ē | pansy. |
| 4 | -a" n z ē | Tansy. |
| 3 | -n z ē | frenzy, Guernsey, Linsey. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-e-h-i-m-n-p-z" | |
-1 letter: mechanize. | |
-2 letters: camphene, camphine. | |
-3 letters: chapmen, cheapen, cheapie, impeach, machine, pemican. | |
-4 letters: achene, anemic, apiece, apneic, chaine, cinema, eczema, encamp, haemic, haemin, hempen, hempie, iceman, icemen, imphee, manche, meanie, menace, painch, peahen, pechan, zechin. | |
-5 letters: amice, amine, amnic, anime, azine, campi, chain, champ, chape, cheap, cheep, chime, chimp, china, chine, enema, hance, hemic, hemin, hence. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-e-h-i-m-n-p-z" | |
+1 letter: chimpanzees. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Sounds | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
