Bonobo

//bəˈnoʊ̯ˌboʊ̯// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A great ape, Pan paniscus, from Africa south of the Congo river.
  2. 2
    small chimpanzee of swamp forests in Zaire; a threatened species wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
pygmy chimpanzeepygmy chimpanzeedwarf chimpanzeehippie chimppan paniscus

Etymology

From Bolobo, a village on the Congo River where Europeans first made contact with the species. Bolobo is possibly imitative of the bubbling of the rapids at that section of the Congo.

Related phrases

pan paniscuspygmy chimpanzee

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.