Ape, a name commonly given to any of the family of mammals to which the monkey belongs. The term is limited, strictly, to the anthropoid, or man-like monkeys. This family includes the chimpanzee, the gorilla, the orang-outang and the gibbon, some of which are larger and stronger than man. The skeleton closely resembles that in man, the difference being mostly in the proportion of the limbs, the shape of the cranial and facial bones and the spinal column. The legs are shorter than in man, the arms longer, the skull thicker, the jaws square rather than rounded and the spinal column not curved at the base. The feet are similar to those of man, though the big toe is somewhat like a thumb, and the foot can clasp things like a hand. The brain is only half as large as man's, but is similar in almost all other respects. In muscles, nerves and all the bodily organs, man and the apes are practically the same. But the bodies of the apes, excepting the face, the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, are covered with coarse black or brown hair. The food of the ape is vegetable, largely fruits, and its home is built on a rude platform constructed in the trees of the tropical forests. See CHIMPANZEE; GORILLA; ORANG-OUTANG; GIBBON; BABOON; MONKEY.