eugenics - Definitions from Dictionary.com

6 results for: eugenics

Browse Nearby Entries

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

eu·gen·ics

Audio Help [yoo-jen-iks] Pronunciation Key

–noun (used with a singular verb

)

the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, esp. by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics).

[Origin: 1880–85; see eugenic, -ics

]

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

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
eugenics

To learn more about eugenics visit Britannica.com

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

eu·gen·ics Audio Help (yōō-jěn'ĭks) Pronunciation Key
n. (used with a sing. verb)
The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.

(Download Now or Buy the Book)

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
eugenics

1883, coined by Eng. scientist Francis Galton (1822-1911) on analogy of ethics, physics, etc. from Gk. eugenes "well-born, of good stock," from eu- "good" + genos "birth" (see genus).

"The investigation of human eugenics, that is, of the conditions under which men of a high type are produced." [Galton, "Human Faculty," 1883]

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

eugenics
noun
the study of methods of improving genetic qualities by selective breeding (especially as applied to human mating) [ant: cacogenics]

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
eugenics [(yooh-jen-iks)]

The idea that one can improve the human race by careful selection of those who mate and produce offspring.

Note: Eugenics was a popular theory in the early twentieth century but is no longer taken seriously, primarily because of the horrors of the eugenic efforts of the Nazi regime in Germany.

[Chapter:] Life Sciences

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

Eugenics

Eu*gen"ics\, n. The science of improving stock, whether human or animal. --F. Galton.

Browse Nearby Entries: