genus

Pronunciation: /ˈd͡ʒiːnəs/

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B2 — Upper-Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a general kind of something
  2. noun (biology) taxonomic group containing one or more species

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin genus (“birth, origin, a race, sort, kind”) from the root gen- in Latin gignō (“to beget, produce”). Doublet of gender and genre, further related to kin.

In classic literature

Semantic network

Broader (hypernyms)
kind

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