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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Dar·win·ism

Audio Help [dahr-wuh-niz-uh

m] Pronunciation Key

–noun

the Darwinian theory that species originate by descent, with variation, from parent forms, through the natural selection of those individuals best adapted for the reproductive success of their kind.

[Origin: 1855–60; Darwin + -ism

]

—Related forms

Dar·win·ist, Dar·win·ite

Audio Help [dahr-wuh-nahyt] Pronunciation Key, noun, adjective

Dar·win·is·tic, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Darwinism

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Dar·win·ism Audio Help (där'wĭ-nĭz'əm) Pronunciation Key
n. A theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Also called Darwinian theory.

Dar'win·ist n., Dar'win·is'tic adj.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Darwinism

1864, from Charles Darwin (1809-1882), whose major works were "The Origin of Species" (1859) and "The Descent of Man" (1871). Darwin's family name is from O.E. deorwine "dear-friend" (10c.)

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

darwinism
noun
a theory of organic evolution claiming that new species arise and are perpetuated by natural selection

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Darwinism Audio Help (där'wĭ-nĭz'əm) Pronunciation Key
A theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Darwin's ideas have been refined and modified by subsequent researchers, but his theories still form the foundation of the scientific understanding of the evolution of life. Darwinism is often contrasted with another theory of biological evolution called Lamarckism, based on the now-discredited ideas of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. See Note at evolution.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Dar·win·ism (därw-nzm)
n.

A theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Main Entry: Dar·win·ism
Pronunciation: 'där-w&-"niz-&m
Function: noun
: a theory of the origin and perpetuation of new species of animals and plants that offspring of a given organism vary, that natural selection favors the survival of some of these variations over others, that new species have arisen and may continue to arise by these processes, and that widely divergent groups of plants and animals have arisen from the same ancestors; broadly : a theory of biological evolution —Dar·win·ist /-w&-n&st/ noun or adjective

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Darwinism

Dar"win*ism\, n. (Biol.) The theory or doctrines put forth by Darwin. See above. --Huxley.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Darwinism

Nat"u*ral\ (?; 135), a. [OE. naturel, F. naturel, fr. L. naturalis, fr. natura. See Nature.]

1. Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the constitution of a thing; belonging to native character; according to nature; essential; characteristic; not artifical, foreign, assumed, put on, or acquired; as, the natural growth of animals or plants; the natural motion of a gravitating body; natural strength or disposition; the natural heat of the body; natural color.

With strong natural sense, and rare force of will. --Macaulay.

2. Conformed to the order, laws, or actual facts, of nature; consonant to the methods of nature; according to the stated course of things, or in accordance with the laws which govern events, feelings, etc.; not exceptional or violent; legitimate; normal; regular; as, the natural consequence of crime; a natural death.

What can be more natural than the circumstances in the behavior of those women who had lost their husbands on this fatal day? --Addison.

3. Having to do with existing system to things; dealing with, or derived from, the creation, or the world of matter and mind, as known by man; within the scope of human reason or experience; not supernatural; as, a natural law; natural science; history, theology.

I call that natural religion which men might know . . . by the mere principles of reason, improved by consideration and experience, without the help of revelation. --Bp. Wilkins.

4. Conformed to truth or reality; as: (a) Springing from true sentiment; not artifical or exaggerated; -- said of action, delivery, etc.; as, a natural gesture, tone, etc. (b) Resembling the object imitated; true to nature; according to the life; -- said of anything copied or imitated; as, a portrait is natural.

5. Having the character or sentiments properly belonging to one's position; not unnatural in feelings.

To leave his wife, to leave his babes, . . . He wants the natural touch. --Shak.

6. Connected by the ties of consanguinity. "Natural friends." --J. H. Newman.

7. Begotten without the sanction of law; born out of wedlock; illegitimate; bastard; as, a natural child.

8. Of or pertaining to the lower or animal nature, as contrasted with the higher or moral powers, or that which is spiritual; being in a state of nature; unregenerate.

The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. --1 Cor. ii. 14.

9. (Math.) Belonging to, to be taken in, or referred to, some system, in which the base is 1; -- said or certain functions or numbers; as, natural numbers, those commencing at 1; natural sines, cosines, etc., those taken in arcs whose radii are 1.

10. (Mus.) (a) Produced by natural organs, as those of the human throat, in distinction from instrumental music. (b) Of or pertaining to a key which has neither a flat nor a sharp for its signature, as the key of C major. (c) Applied to an air or modulation of harmony which moves by easy and smooth transitions, digressing but little from the original key. --Moore (Encyc. of Music).

Natural day, the space of twenty-four hours. --Chaucer.

Natural fats, Natural gas, etc. See under Fat, Gas. etc.

Natural Harmony (Mus.), the harmony of the triad or common chord.

Natural history, in its broadest sense, a history or description of nature as a whole, incuding the sciences of botany, zo["o]logy, geology, mineralogy, paleontology, chemistry, and physics. In recent usage the term is often restricted to the sciences of botany and zo["o]logy collectively, and sometimes to the science of zoology alone.

Natural law, that instinctive sense of justice and of right and wrong, which is native in mankind, as distinguished from specifically revealed divine law, and formulated human law.

Natural modulation (Mus.), transition from one key to its relative keys.

Natural order. (Nat. Hist.) See under order.

Natural person. (Law) See under person, n.

Natural philosophy, originally, the study of nature in general; in modern usage, that branch of physical science, commonly called physics, which treats of the phenomena and laws of matter and considers those effects only which are unaccompanied by any change of a chemical nature; -- contrasted with mental and moral philosophy.

Natural scale (Mus.), a scale which is written without flats or sharps. Model would be a preferable term, as less likely to mislead, the so-called artificial scales (scales represented by the use of flats and sharps) being equally natural with the so-called natural scale

Natural science, natural history, in its broadest sense; -- used especially in contradistinction to mental or moral science.

Natural selection (Biol.), a supposed operation of natural laws analogous, in its operation and results, to designed selection in breeding plants and animals, and resulting in the survival of the fittest. The theory of natural selection supposes that this has been brought about mainly by gradual changes of environment which have led to corresponding changes of structure, and that those forms which have become so modified as to be best adapted to the changed environment have tended to survive and leave similarly adapted descendants, while those less perfectly adapted have tended to die out though lack of fitness for the environment, thus resulting in the survival of the fittest. See Darwinism.

Natural system (Bot. & Zo["o]l.), a classification based upon real affinities, as shown in the structure of all parts of the organisms, and by their embryology.

It should be borne in mind that the natural system of botany is natural only in the constitution of its genera, tribes, orders, etc., and in its grand divisions. --Gray.

Natural theology, or Natural religion, that part of theological science which treats of those evidences of the existence and attributes of the Supreme Being which are exhibited in nature; -- distinguished from revealed religion. See Quotation under Natural, a., 3.

Natural vowel, the vowel sound heard in urn, furl, sir, her, etc.; -- so called as being uttered in the easiest open position of the mouth organs. See Neutral vowel, under Neutral and Guide to Pronunciation, [sect] 17.

Syn: See Native.

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