Nearby Words

recessive trait

Cultural Dictionary

recessive trait definition


In genetics, a trait that must be contributed by both parents in order to appear in the offspring. Recessive traits can be carried in a person's genes without appearing in that person. For example, a dark-haired person may have one gene for dark hair, which is a dominant trait, and one gene for light hair, which is recessive. It is thus possible for two dark-haired parents to have a light-haired child, provided each parent contributes a gene for light hair.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Recessive trait is always a great word to know.
So is ort. Does it mean:
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
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.
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