phylogeny
The evolutionary history of groups of organisms, such as species or clades.
Other meanings
The historical development of a human social or racial group.
“Understanding the phylogeny of this musical group helps us understand its music.”
The historical development of any thing, idea, etc.
Synonyms
- evolution
- organic evolution
Related words
- blastophyly
- cormophyly
- cytophylogeny
- histophyly
- megaphylogeny
- monophylogeny
- morphophyly
- organophyly
- phylogenist
- physiophyly
- polyphylogeny
- subphylogeny
Word history
From Ancient Greek "φῦλον" (tribe, genus, species).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “phylogeny” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.