Biped

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈbaɪpɛd/

Definitions

1. A living organism that moves from one place to another by using two legs for locomotion and is part of the animal kingdom
2. An entity distinguished by its adaptation to walk or run on two legs while interacting with its surroundings
3. An organism that utilizes two limbs for walking or running, which typically belongs to the class of vertebrates within the animal kingdom

Etymology: Latin "bipes" was built from "bi-", meaning "two", and "pes", meaning "foot", so the word is a literal description of a creature standing on two feet. The same root turns up in "pedal", "pedestrian" and "quadruped", the last of which is simply the four-footed counterpart. English took the Latin form directly, and the element "-ped" has since become a productive building block for describing animals by their number of feet. Because "biped" is a plain Latin compound rather than a word that changed shape over centuries, its interest lies in how transparent it is: each part still points at its meaning. Its use is almost entirely in zoology and descriptive writing, where it marks out upright or two-legged animals, including humans, and sets them against creatures with more limbs on the ground.

Synonyms: two-legged, humanoid