A monkey is "any nonhuman primate mammal with the exception usually of the lemurs and tarsiers". Broadly defined, there are three type of monkeys: (1)non-human hominoids (also known as apes), (2)old world monkeys, and (3)new world monkeys. However only the latter two are currently considered monkeys by most biologists.
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However non-human hominoids are still widely considered monkeys in the popular culture. For example, Entertainment Weekly's list of the 10 best monkeys in movies included three chimpanzees and two orangutans. In addition, movies such as Funky Monkey and Monkeys, Go Home! are about chimpanzees. There are about 280 known living species of monkey (260 if non-human hominoids are excluded).
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Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, old and new world monkeys usually have tails. Tailless monkeys may be called "apes", incorrectly according to most modern biologists; thus the tailless Barbary macaque is called the "Barbary ape".
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The New World monkeys (superfamily Ceboidea) are classified within the parvorder of Platyrrhini, whereas the Old World monkeys (superfamily Cercopithecoidea) form part of the parvorder Catarrhini, which also includes the hominoids (apes and humans). Thus, as Old World monkeys are more closely related to hominoids than they are to New World monkeys, the monkeys are not a unitary (monophyletic) group.
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And thus there is no scientific basis for biologists currently excluding non-human hominoids from the monkey category. The scientific definition of "monkey" has evolved over the centuries. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word "monkey" may originate in a German version of the Reynard the Fox fable, published circa 1580. In this version of the fable, a character named Moneke is the son of Martin the Ape.