prehensile
adjective
Did you know?
You may be familiar with prehensile from the animal world: monkeys have prehensile tails, elephants have prehensile trunks, giraffes have prehensile tongues, etc. But can you comprehend where this word comes from? Can you apprehend its derivation? The Latin verb prehendere, meaning "to seize or grasp," is the ancestor of a number of English terms, including comprehend, apprehend, and prehensile. Prehensile came into English in the 18th century via French préhensile, from Latin prehensus, the past participle of prehendere.
Examples of prehensile in a Sentence
Scott Travers, Forbes, 10 Oct. 2024
Some mammals have prehensile tails and can hang from them.
—Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Jan. 2024
Native to Central and South America, the honey bear (Potos flavus) and the bearcat are interestingly the only carnivorous mammals in the world that have what’s called a prehensile tail.
—Marisa Sloan, Discover Magazine, 3 June 2023
What does Rico's prehensile tail do?
—Victoria Moorwood, The Enquirer, 21 Oct. 2022
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Cite this Entry
“Prehensile.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prehensile. Accessed 23 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
prehensile
adjective
Medical Definition
prehensile
adjective
-ˈhen-ˌsīl
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