Meanings
plural blackbacks
- biologyAn adolescent male gorilla or chimpanzee.
The second-ranking silverback is also a possible sire in the sixth case, although three other lower-ranking blackback males were also not excluded.
2005, B. J. Bradley et al., “Mountain Gorilla Tug-of-War,”, in PNAS, volume 102, number 26, page 94211 more example
The author worked with two main study groups of gorilla in that region. Each contained a fully mature male (silverback), who was the obvious leader of the group, and a younger male of around 9 years of age (blackback), who had not yet assumed full adult morphology.
1979, A. H. Harcourt, “Contrasts between Male Relationships in Wild Gorilla Groups,”, in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, volume 5, number 1, page 40 - UKThe great black-backed gull.
Origin
Cite this entry
blackback. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackback
“blackback.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackback. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “blackback,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackback.
Source: blackback on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.