| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
| a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison. |
"The investigation of human eugenics, that is, of the conditions under which men of a high type are produced." [Galton, "Human Faculty," 1883]Related: Eugenic (adj.).
eugenics eu·gen·ics (y&oomacr;-jěn'ĭks)
n.
The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.
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.