EVOLUTIONISM

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Meaning:

(biology) a scientific theory of the origin of species of plants and animals

Synonyms:

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("evolutionism" is a kind of...):

scientific theory (a theory that explains scientific observations)

Domain category:

biological science; biology (the science that studies living organisms)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "evolutionism"):

Darwinism (a theory of organic evolution claiming that new species arise and are perpetuated by natural selection)

Lamarckism (a theory of organic evolution claiming that acquired characteristics are transmitted to offspring)

punctuated equilibrium; theory of punctuated equilibrium (a theory of evolution holding that evolutionary change in the fossil record came in fits and starts rather than in a steady process of slow change)