clade

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a group of biological taxa or species that share features inherited from a common ancestor

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos, “shoot, branch”). Coined by British evolutionary biologist, philosopher, author Julian Huxley in 1957 in a paper titled The Three Types of Evolutionary Process in Nature. Doublet of cladus.

In classic literature

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