Phrase guide

monkey business

noun · 3 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.

Received-Pronunciation: /ˈmʌŋkɪ ˌbɪznɪs/
Received-Pronunciation: /-nɪz/
Received-Pronunciation: [-nəs]
Received-Pronunciation: [-nəz]
General-American: /ˈmʌŋki ˌbɪznɪs/
General-American: /ˈməŋ-/
General-American: /-nɪz/
General-American: [-nəs]
General-American: [-nəz]
Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

noun

Meaning 1

Activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic, informal, uncountable

Examples

Stop all this monkey business and do your homework!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: badness, delinquincy, devilishness, devilment, devilry, deviltry, elfishness, goings-on, hanky-panky, impishness, impropriety, knavery, misbehavior, mischief, mischievousness, misconduct, misdemeanor, monkey business, naughtiness, prankishness, pranksomeness, puckishness, rascality, roguery, roguishness, scampishness

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 2

Activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic, informal, uncountable

Examples

She wondered what sort of monkey business her neighbour was up to, sneaking out of his house at 1:00 am.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: hanky-panky, bad manners, badness, delinquency, devilishness, devilment, devilry, deviltry, disobedience, elfishness, goings-on, impishness, impropriety, misbehavior, mischief, mischievousness, misconduct, misdemeanor, monkey business, naughtiness, prankishness, pranksomeness, puckishness, rascality, roguery, roguishness, scampishness, wrong, wrongness

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 3

mischievous or deceitful behavior

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: mischief, mischief-making, mischievousness, deviltry, devilry, devilment, rascality, roguery, roguishness, shenanigan

History

Etymology

From monkey + business, probably a calque of Bengali বাঁদরামি (bãdrami, “mischief”, literally “monkey-behaviour”), from বাঁদর (bãdor, “monkey”) + -আমি (-ami, suffix forming nouns referring to the properties, qualities, or states of the words to which it is attached), from the perception that monkeys behave mischievously.

Across languages

Translations

47 source translations are retained for this English entry.

Bengali: বাঁদরামি (bãdrami) — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Chinese Mandarin: 惡作劇 /恶作剧 (èzuòjù) — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Chinese Mandarin: 鬼名堂 (guǐmíngtáng) — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Chinese Mandarin: 胡鬧 /胡闹 (húnào) — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Dutch: apenstreek — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Finnish: ajanhukka — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Finnish: koirankuje — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
French: bêtise — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
French: espièglerie — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
French: macaquerie — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
French: singerie — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
German: Affengeschäft — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
German: Affentheater — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
German: Allotria — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Italian: roba da matti — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Italian: scimmiata — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Japanese: 悪戯 (itazura) — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Korean: 허튼짓 (heoteunjit) — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Macedonian: мага́рштина (magárština) — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Macedonian: безобра́зие (bezobrázie) — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Polish: psoty — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Polish: zbytki — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Polish: figle — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Romanian: maimuțărie — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Russian: безобра́зие (bezobrázije) — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Russian: озорство́ (ozorstvó) — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Russian: ша́лость (šálostʹ) — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Russian: шко́да (škóda) — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Spanish: diabluras — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Spanish: monada — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Spanish: monería — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Spanish: travesuras — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Swedish: rackartyg — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Swedish: sattyg — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Turkish: boş iş — activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting
Finnish: venkoilu — activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal
Japanese: いんちき — activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal
Japanese: インチキ (inchiki) — activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal
Japanese: 裏工作 (urakōsaku) — activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal
Macedonian: и́трина (ítrina) — activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal
Polish: świństwa — activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal
Polish: machlojki — activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal
Russian: хи́трости (xítrosti) — activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal
Spanish: chanchullos — activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal
Spanish: juego sucio — activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal
Spanish: trapicheos — activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal
Swedish: bedrägeri — activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal

Word forms

Inflections and variants

No separate word forms were provided.

Word family

Derived and related words

Derived: none provided

Related: I'll be a monkey's uncle, monkey, monkey around, monkeyshine

Spelling and sound

Hyphenation and homophones

Hyphenation: monk·ey busi·ness

Semantic map

Other relationships

Hypernyms: mischief, mischief-making, mischievousness, deviltry, devilry, devilment, rascality, roguery, roguishness, shenanigan

Sources

Where this information comes from

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