Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A large arboreal lemur (Indri indri) of eastern Madagascar, having very long legs and a rudimentary tail.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The babakoto, Indris or Lichanotus brevicaudatus, a lemurine quadruped of Madagascar, belonging to the subfamily Indrisinæ and family Lemuridæ.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One of the largest living lemurs (Indri indri).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun large short-tailed lemur of Madagascar having thick silky fur in black and white and fawn

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, probably from Malagasy endira, local name for the indri.]

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Examples

  • * The Indri Indri indri is of course not a sifaka, but it is a close relative, and a large one given that it reaches 70 cm in total length and 7.5 kg.

    Literally, flying lemurs (and not dermopterans) Darren Naish 2006

  • * The Indri Indri indri is of course not a sifaka, but it is a close relative, and a large one given that it reaches 70 cm in total length and 7.5 kg.

    Archive 2006-09-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • CORWIN (voice-over): Out of the 100-plus species of lemurs living in Madagascar, the indri is the largest and can weigh as much as 20 pounds.

    CNN Transcript Oct 22, 2007 2007

  • CORWIN (voice-over): Out of the 100-plus species of lemurs living in Madagascar, the indri is the largest and can weigh as much as 20 pounds.

    CNN Transcript Oct 22, 2007 2007

  • The lemurs and other primates at far right are among the best here: there's an aye-aye, a sifaka, indri and others.

    Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • The lemurs of Madagascar vary widely, from the tiny Madame Berthe's mouse lemur (Microcebus berthae), which, at only 30 grams, is the world's smallest primate, to the indri (Indri indri, EN), which leaps from tree to tree similar to the airborne kangaroo.

    Biological diversity in Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands 2008

  • Bulldozers are busy establishing Sherritt's four-billion-dollar nickel mine - one of the world's five largest mining projects - and building a pipeline, ripping through the shrivelling natural habitat of the endangered indri lemur.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2008

  • The lemurs and other primates at far right are among the best here: there's an aye-aye, a sifaka, indri and others.

    Toys toys toys Darren Naish 2006

  • CORWIN (voice-over): But it is only here, in these remote rain forests in eastern Madagascar, that the indri exist.

    CNN Transcript Oct 22, 2007 2007

  • CORWIN (voice-over): But it is only here, in these remote rain forests in eastern Madagascar, that the indri exist.

    CNN Transcript Oct 22, 2007 2007

Comments

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  • Best etymology ever, a classic Quinean gavagai. It comes from the Malagasy (spelt indry) and means "look!". The actual Malagasy name is babakoto, which gives the alternative and much less interesting English name 'babacoote'. (And this one is actually true, unlike the mistaken belief that 'kangaroo' was an answer meaning "I don't know.")

    July 8, 2008