Standard Lemma guide

lemur

noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈliːmə(ɹ)/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -iːmə(ɹ)
  • homophone: Lima (non-rhotic)
  • CMU ARPABET: L IY1 M ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any strepsirrhine primate of the superfamily Lemuroidea, native only to Madagascar and some surrounding islands.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Any of the genus Lemur, represented by the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: dated

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A loris (Lemur tardigradus, now Loris tardigradus), predating the 10th edition of Systema Naturæ.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

large-eyed arboreal prosimian having foxy faces and long furry tails

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: primate

Narrower terms: Madagascar cat, ring-tailed lemur, Lemur catta, aye-aye, Daubentonia madagascariensis, slender loris, Loris gracilis, slow loris, Nycticebus tardigradua, Nycticebus pygmaeus, potto, kinkajou, Perodicticus potto, angwantibo, golden potto, Arctocebus calabarensis, galago, bushbaby, bush baby, indri, indris, Indri indri, Indri brevicaudatus, woolly indris, Avahi laniger

History

Etymology

From Latin lemurēs (“spirits of the dead”). The name was originally given to the red slender loris (then Lemur tardigradus) in 1754 by Carl Linnaeus. According to Linnaeus, the name was selected because of the nocturnal activity and slow movements of the red slender loris. In 1758, Linnaeus added, among others, the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) to the genus Lemur. All other species, including the red slender loris, were eventually moved to other genera. In time, the word became the colloquial name for all primates endemic to Madagascar.

Across languages

Translations

57 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: lemur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Arabic: لَيْمُور (laymūr) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Armenian: լեմուր (lemur) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Asturian: llémur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Asturian: lémur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Basque: lemur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Belarusian: лему́р (ljemúr) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Bengali: লেমুর (lemur) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Bulgarian: лему́р (lemúr) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Catalan: lèmur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Catalan: maqui — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Chinese Mandarin: 狐猴 (húhóu) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Czech: lemur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Dutch: lemuur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Esperanto: lemuro — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Finnish: maki — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Finnish: makimainen puoliapina — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • French: lémur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • French: lémurien — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Galician: lémur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Galician: lémure — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • German: Lemur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • German: Lemure — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Greek: λεμούριος (lemoúrios) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Hebrew: לֶמוּר (lemúr) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Hindi: लीमर (līmar) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Hungarian: maki — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Hungarian: makimajom — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Icelandic: lemúr — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Ido: lemuriano — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Indonesian: warik — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Interlingua: lemure — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Italian: lemure — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Japanese: 狐猿 (kitsunezaru) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Japanese: キツネザル (kitsunezaru) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Korean: 여우원숭이 (yeouwonsung'i) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Lithuanian: lemūras — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Malagasy: gidro — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Malagasy: varika — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Māori: rīmā — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Norwegian: lemur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Occitan: lemur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Persian: لمور (lemur) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Polish: lemur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Portuguese: lêmure — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Romanian: lemur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Romanian: lemurian — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Russian: лему́р (lemúr) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Serbo-Croatian: лѐмӯр — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Serbo-Croatian: lèmūr — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Spanish: lémur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Swedish: lemur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Tagalog: lemur — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Thai: ลีเมอร์ (lii-mə̂ə) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Turkish: maki — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Ukrainian: лему́р (lemúr) — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea
  • Vietnamese: vượn cáo — strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea