Species

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈspiːʃiːz/

Definitions

1. A category of biological classification that includes organisms sharing common characteristics and the ability to interbreed successfully
2. An identifiable group of living organisms that exhibit shared traits and can produce fertile descendants through reproduction
3. A group of organisms that share common traits and can reproduce fertile offspring within the group

Etymology: The most striking thing about "species" is how far it has travelled from its Latin meaning. In Rome, "speciēs" meant "appearance" or "outward look," and it could describe a thing's visible form or even its quality, rather than a category of living things. It came from "speciō," "to see," with an abstract noun ending attached, so the word literally named what something looked like. Its modern biological sense developed gradually from that idea of outward form. Classifying living things by what they look like is a natural step from "appearance" to "kind," and the notion of a kind that breeds true is what turned that classification into a scientific term. The word is a doublet of "spice," which entered English through Old French from the same Latin root, so the two words share an ancestor while sitting in very different corners of the language.

Synonyms: type, kind, variety, class, category