Word of the Day Archive
Monday April 30, 2001
heterogeneous \het-uh-ruh-JEE-nee-uhs; -JEE-nyuhs\ , adjective:
Consisting of dissimilar elements, parts, or ingredients -- opposed to homogeneous.
According to the historian Albert Fein, New York embodied "the challenge of a democratic nation's capacity to plan for and maintain an urban environment to meet the needs of a uniquely heterogeneous population."
-- Robert A. M. Stern, "et al.", New York 1880
He worked texture and color into the mortar and cement with heterogeneous bits of found junk, from seashells and stones to busted chunks of Phillips' Milk of Magnesia bottles.
-- Gene Santoro, Myself When I Am Real
Fragmentation was inevitable within such a heterogeneous group, whose members had little in common.
-- Lilia Shevtsova, "et al.", Yeltsin's Russia
Heterogeneous derives from Greek heterogenes, from heter-, "other, different" + genos, "kind."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for heterogeneous
