great ape
"great-ape" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“great ape” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large non-human primate, such as a gorilla, an orangutan, or a chimpanzee.
Corpus desk
Index EN-great-ape · great ape · English
great ape · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "G" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | great ape |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “great ape” in English
Rare enough to double-check
great ape is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for great ape in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is great ape, spelled G-R-E-A-T- -A-P-E.
Definition
- 1A large non-human primate, such as a gorilla, an orangutan, or a chimpanzee.
- 2Any member of the taxonomic family Hominidae, including gorilla, orangutan, chimpanzee, excluding Homo.
- 3Any member of the taxonomic family Hominidae, including Homo, and also many similar extinct species.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how great ape appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Long before people thought in terms of evolution […] great apes were often confused with humans.
This wrinkled layer of gray matter that's highly developed in humans and other great apes, as well as whales, dolphins, and elephants, helps coordinate complex cognitive processes.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.