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genetics

nounattested in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//dʒəˈnɛt.ɪks//
  • United Kingdom//dʒɪ-//
  • //ˈdʒɛ.nə.ʈɪks//
  • //ˈdʒɛn.ʈɪks//

The branch of biology that deals with the transmission and variation of inherited characteristics, in particular chromosomes and DNA.

noun

  1. 1

    The branch of biology that deals with the transmission and variation of inherited characteristics, in particular chromosomes and DNA.

    If we want to raise mangels that will not run to seed, or to breed a cow that will give more milk in less time, or milk with more butter and less water, we can turn to Genetics with every hope that something can be done in these laudable directions.

    Genetics has shown that people are different, and these differences cluster according to geography and culture, but never in a way that aligns with the traditional concepts of human races.

  2. 2

    The genetic makeup of a specific individual or species.

    As a result of your father’s, mother’s, and their parents genetics, you are born with a genetic structure that is dealt to you at conception. […] Our ancestry determines our genetics.

    This amazing occurrence made my head go bong to say the least; it was obvious that Elizabeth had not been “schizophrenic” because of her genetics, nor because of stress, nor malnutrition, nor hypoglycemia, nor because of any of the causes of mental illness that I had learned and rectify, but because of food allergies

    Anthony knew he could excel in boxing because of his genetics. He fought 168 pounds and fought in fights around the Tri-Cities.

    Melzer and Luke C. Pilling, a research fellow in genomic epidemiology at the University of Exeter Medical School, have also studied the genetics underlying longevity.

Etymology

From Ancient Greek γένεσις (génesis, “origin”). Coined by English biologist William Bateson in 1905 in a letter to zoologist Adam Sedgwick, and first used publicly by Bateson at a lecture to the International Conference on Plant Hybridization in 1906.

The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).