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genetic

UK/d͡ʒəˈnɛt.ɪk/US/d͡ʒəˈnɛt.ɪk/
adjectiveB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #2,901 of 15,258leans written

Genetic means passed down through the units that carry inherited traits. A genetic condition, genetic testing, genetically identical.

Genetic does not mean inevitable: most traits involve many genes and an environment, and a genetic risk is usually a probability rather than a sentence. Genetic testing raises real questions about who else in a family learns what. The Greek genesis means origin.

Definitions of genetic

  1. 1adjectivegeneticPassed down through inherited units.B2

    “The disease is genetic, so the doctor tested her brothers as well.”

genetic is a quality of inheritance.

Where it comes from

Coined from genesis, from Greek genesis, origin or birth, from gignesthai, to be born.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *ǵenh₁-

  2. Ancient Greek

    γενετικός

  3. English, today

    genetic

Coined from genesis, similarly to antithesis, antithetic. Reflects Ancient Greek γενετικός, from γένεσις + -κός. Ultimately from Ancient Greek γίγνομαι (“I come into being”). by surface analysis, en + gene + tic or gen(esis) + etic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

genetic in the wild

  • The first company to focus on genetic engineering, Genentech, was founded in 1976 and began the production of human proteins.

    Genetic engineering

  • As well as producing hormones, vaccines, and other drugs, genetic engineering has the potential to cure genetic diseases through gene therapy.

    Genetic engineering

  • The genetic code is highly similar among all organisms and can be expressed in a simple table with 64 entries.

    Genetic code

  • There are well over 6,000 known genetic disorders, and new genetic disorders are constantly being described in medical literature.

    Genetic disorder

  • Most cancers, although they involve genetic mutations to a small proportion of cells in the body, are acquired diseases.

    Genetic disorder

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.