genus
/ˈdʒiːnəs
/ /ˈdʒɛnəs /noun (plural genera /ˈdʒɛn(ə)rə/) Biology
1A principal taxonomic category that ranks above species and below family, and is denoted by a capitalized Latin name, e.g. Leo.The identification of two named genera in a single organism presents a taxonomic dilemma....
- The cephalochordates include only about twenty species of two genera of organisms commonly called amphioxus.
- Both the genus and species name of this aggressive flycatcher are from the Latin word for tyrant.
Synonyms
group, subdivision, subfamily
1.1(In philosophical and general use) a class of things which have common characteristics and which can be divided into subordinate kinds.The subject genus of physics, for example, is the class of cases in which bodies change their locations in space....
- Aristotle also points out that sometimes the hypothesis of the genus is omitted as too obvious.
- The main genera of relativism can be distinguished according to the object they seek to relativize.
Synonyms
type, sort, kind, genre, style, variety, category, class;
species, breed, brand, make, model, family, stamp, cast, ilk, kidney;
division, subdivision, section, department, compartment
Origin
Mid 16th century: from Latin, 'birth, race, stock'.
gender from Late Middle English:
The words gender and engender (Middle English) go back via Old French to Latin genus ‘birth, family, nation’, a word that was reborrowed in the early 17th century for scientific classification, although it had been in use 50 years earlier in logic. In modern French the ‘d’ was lost to produce genre, a word reborrowed in the early 19th century. Generation (Middle English), generate (early 16th century), engender (Middle English), generosity (Late Middle English), genial (mid 16th century), and degenerate (Late Middle English) are all from the same source.