Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various small- to medium-sized African monkeys primarily of the tribe Cercopithecini, being chiefly arboreal and having long hind legs, a long tail, and often a brightly colored face.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A French name, very generally adopted as a book-name, for the old-world monkeys of the genus Cercopithecus.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any of several long-tailed arboreal African monkeys, of the genera Cercopithecus and Erythrocebus (formerly classified as Cercocebus), such as as the green monkey (Cercopithecus callitrichus) and grivet (Cercopithecus griseo-viridis).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The Old World monkeys of the genus Cercopithecus.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small slender African monkey having long hind limbs and tail and long hair around the face

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French : from guen-, as in guenilles, filthy clothing, and earlier guenipe, dirty scrap of cloth (in reference to the guenon's tail, which trails like the train of a gown ), ultimately from French dialectal guener, to dirty, moisten; akin to French dialectal gasne, stagnant pool, slough, perhaps of Gaulish origin.]

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Examples

  • Jonathan Kingdon's sketches of African guenon monkeys.

    Spiral-Bound and Spellbound Jennie Erin Smith 2011

  • Other globally threatened species include eastern chimpanzee Pan troglodytes schweinfurthi in the only place where its range overlaps with the gorilla's, l'Hoests guenon Cercopithecus lhoesti and African elephant Loxodonta africana which are estimated at 30 individuals.

    Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda 2009

  • Other primate species include black-and-white colobus Colobus guereza, red-tailed guenon C. ascanius schmidti, blue guenon C. mitis mitis, vervet C. aethiops, and olive baboon Papio anubis plus nocturnal prosimians.

    Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda 2009

  • I vote for the Hamlyn's owl-faced guenon, as I tend to vote for the underdog.

    3 species of monkey you should meet Field Notes 2008

  • A new species of guenon (genus Cercopithecus) from Gabon.

    Northwestern Congolian lowland forests 2008

  • This month, I've settled on three candidates: the night monkey, Hamlyn's owl-faced guenon, and the saki monkey.

    3 species of monkey you should meet Field Notes 2008

  • The African elephant (Loxodonta africana), chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), Sclater's guenon, white-throated guenon, and crested genet (Genetta cristata) are all classified as endangered.

    Niger Delta swamp forests 2008

  • A guenon was howling in th Tropic World indoor rainstorm.

    Cookie, the Major Mitchell's Cockatoo ricklibrarian 2008

  • This month, I've settled on three candidates: the night monkey, Hamlyn's owl-faced guenon, and the saki monkey.

    Archive 2008-10-01 Field Notes 2008

  • The Nigerian Lowland Forest ecoregion contains much lower rates of plant and animal endemism than other West and Central African lowland forests, but has one important endemic primate, white-throated guenon (Cercopithecus erythrogaster).

    Nigerian lowland forests 2007

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