a name commonly applied to the tailless monkeys which inhabit the islands of the Indian Archipelago. The gibbon is distinguished by the slenderness of its form and by the extraordinary length of its arms, which, when the animal is standing, reach nearly to its ankles and which enable it to swing itself from tree to tree with wonderful agility. Its color is black, but its face is surrounded with a white or gray beard. Among the species are the common gibbon, or lar, the white-handed gibbon, the wow-wow and the hoolock. See APE.