1-Stop Dictionary Reference

Epigenesis

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. Biology The theory that an individual is developed by successive differentiation of an unstructured egg rather than by a simple enlarging of a preformed entity.

n. Geology Change in the mineral content of a rock because of outside influences.

Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. The theory that an organism develops by differentiation from an unstructured egg rather than by simple enlarging of something preformed.

n. changes in the mineral content of rock after its formation

the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. The theory of generation which holds that the germ is created entirely new, not merely expanded, by the procreative power of the parents. It is opposed to the theory of evolution, also to syngenesis.

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. The coming into being in the act or process of generation or reproduction; the theory or doctrine of generation in which the germ is held to be actually procreated by the parents, not simply expanded or unfolded or made to grow out of an ovum or spermatozoön in which it preëxisted or had been preformed.

n. In geology, same as metamorphism.

n. In pathology, an accessory symptom; a new symptom that does not indicate a change in the nature of a disease.

WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

n. a geological change in the mineral content of rock after the rock has formed

Word Usage

"To-day we can scarcely call epigenesis a THEORY, because we are convinced it is a fact, and can demonstrate it at any moment with the aid of the microscope."

Antonym

evolution syngenesis

Hypernym

Words that are more generic or abstract

metamorphism