Silverback

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A mature male gorilla leading a troop, so named from the silver streaking on its back.

    "To be clear, there’s no reason to hate the actual Harambe. After the silverback gorilla was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2016, people used “RIP Harambe” to… comment on the irony of why we mourn animals but are quick to blame humans?"

  2. 2
    an adult male gorilla with grey hairs across the back wordnet
  3. 3
    A dominant or powerful older human male. broadly, informal

    "Courageously (given Ranger's status in Mugabe's Zimbabwe, and his status as a silverback in North Atlantic Academe), Kriger dissents from their arguments."

  4. 4
    Any of various ferns of the genus Pityrogramma.

Example

More examples

"I obtained a permit to see the silverback gorillas."

Etymology

From silver + back.

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