Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several short-tailed monkeys of the genus Macaca of southeast Asia, Japan, Gibraltar, and northern Africa.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A monkey of the genus Macacus; one of the several kinds of monkeys coming between baboons and the African mangabeys. The term has undergone the same restriction of meaning as Macacus; and most of the macaques, in a former sense of the word, have received special names. The Javan macaque, M. cynomolgus. with beetling brows and tail about as long as the body, is a fair example of the arboreal forms. The munga, M. sinicus of India, is known as the bonnet-macaque, from the top-knot which parts in the middle. The bunder, or rhesus macaque, M. rhesus, is a very common Indian species. The bruh, or pig-tailed macaque, M. nemestrinus, is a long-limbed form inhabiting the Philippines, with the tail of moderate length. In the Bornese black macaque, M. maurus, the tail is a mere stump. Some of these monkeys reach the snow-line in Tibet, as M. thibetanus. A remarkable species, the wanderoo, M. silenus, with a tufted tail and the face set in an enormous frill of long gray hair, inhabits Malabar. Sometimes spelled
macake .
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of short-tailed monkeys of the genus Macaca (formerly Macacus), found in rocky regions of Asia and Africa.
WordNet 3.0
- n. short-tailed monkey of rocky regions of Asia and Africa
Etymologies
- From French macaque, from Portuguese macaco, from Bantu makaku ("some monkeys") ‘some monkeys’, from ma- numeric prefix + kaku ‘monkey’. (Wiktionary)
- French, from Portuguese macaco; see macaco. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A Japanese macaque is on the loose, having escaped from the Bergeron Animal Sanctuary.”
“Crop damage by the macaque is widespread; patterns of crop damage are similar across altitudinal zones and do not seem to be correlated with macaque density.”
“The word macaque has also been used as a racial slur.”
“It's a French slur, derived from the word macaque, as in monkey, used against the dark-skinned people of North Africa.”
“It's a derivative of macaque, which is a type of monkey, apparently commonly addressed at Moroccans and other N.”
“Rhesus monkeys have long been used by scientists trying to understand human physiology (a macaque was the first primate ever to rocket into the stratosphere, and we owe our ability to identify human blood types to research done on rhesus monkeys).”
Monkeys Are Machiavellian, Too - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
“* To be fair to Senator Allen, the monkey is actually called a macaque of the genus macaca.”
“If the fact that there are 550 hairs in the average human eyebrow prompts you to feel superior to the macaque, which is 550 hairs short, you conceal it well.”
“The remark is considered a racial slur in some countries, referring to a macaque, a kind of monkey.”
“It is possible that the term "Rock Apes" the Marines spoke of refers to a different type of monkey, the macaque, that is also found in this area.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘macaque’.
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Davenport
words looked up recently from reading Guy Davenport
flenite, sampan, provender, comitatus, cycladic, surd, scialytic, lignite, plangencies, fugal, zamindary, macaque and 112 more...
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primates
big ones,small ones,as many as
I can findangwantibo, babacoote, baboon, bandar, bandari, bobbejaan, bonobo, bushbaby, cebid, ceboid, chacma, chimp and 102 more...
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Animals (besides pottos)
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robin, wagtail, frog, bunny, pronk, rabbit, fur, badger, mouse, bee, crepuscular, purr and 140 more...
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Fun Words
Words that have funny meanings or are just fun to say.
kumquat, chimichanga, sarsparilla, rutabaga, rumpus, flummox, encrusted, prestidigitation, pomegranate, preposterous, dentiloquist, sepulchre and 323 more...
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Kaichi's Wordie Darlings, or I'm a Lo...
persnickety, discombobulated, braggadoccio, anthropomorphous, antelucan, confluxible, anomalous, poseur, gallivant, poppycock, falderal, gewgaw and 705 more...
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Animals With Nifty Names
hamster, gerbil, ferret, horse, skink, newt, shark, octopus, weasel, panda, giraffe, hyena and 129 more...
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You Damned Dirty Ape!
Primates.
lemur, bush baby, galago, tarsier, potto, loris, marmoset, monkey, tamarin, capuchin, squirrel monkey, night monkey and 44 more...
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doublefourtime's Words
misogyny, twat, music, tuppence, apathy, moor, chuckle, conversation, ninja, bloody, gymkhana, naïve and 61 more...
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pyeplant's Words
giblet, crackerjack, pocket, hoosier, chopsaw, slew, ratchet, pantuflas, wigwam, kettle, winter, dirigible and 44 more...
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Ends With "Que"
plaque, appliqué, bisque, communiqué, grotesque, marque, monocoque, odalisque, baroque, brusque, dantesque, critique and 46 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for macaque.

jaime_d "Mouthbreathing German tourists with vacant eyes and macaque teeth clattering their goose gabble. . ." from "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport Jan 18, 2010