Get Affordable VMs - excellent virtual server hosting


browse words by letter
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

speciesmore about species

species


  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Species  \Spe"cies\,  n.  sing.  &  pl  [L.,  a  sight,  outward 
  appearance,  shape,  form  a  particular  sort,  kind  or  quality, 
  a  species.  See  {Spice},  n.,  and  cf  {Specie},  {Special}.] 
  1.  Visible  or  sensible  presentation;  appearance;  a  sensible 
  percept  received  by  the  imagination;  an  image.  [R.]  ``The 
  species  of  the  letters  illuminated  with  indigo  and 
  violet.''  --Sir  I.  Newton. 
 
  Wit,  .  .  .  the  faculty  of  imagination  in  the  writer, 
  which  searches  over  all  the  memory  for  the  species 
  or  ideas  of  those  things  which  it  designs  to 
  represent.  --Dryden. 
 
  Note:  In  the  scholastic  philosophy,  the  species  was  sensible 
  and  intelligible.  The  sensible  species  was  that  in  any 
  material,  object  which  was  in  fact  discerned  by  the 
  mind  through  the  organ  of  perception,  or  that  in  any 
  object  which  rendered  it  possible  that  it  should  be 
  perceived.  The  sensible  species,  as  apprehended  by  the 
  understanding  in  any  of  the  relations  of  thought,  was 
  called  an  intelligible  species.  ``An  apparent  diversity 
  between  the  species  visible  and  audible  is  that  the 
  visible  doth  not  mingle  in  the  medium,  but  the  audible 
  doth.''  --Bacon. 
 
  2.  (Logic)  A  group  of  individuals  agreeing  in  common 
  attributes,  and  designated  by  a  common  name  a  conception 
  subordinated  to  another  conception,  called  a  genus,  or 
  generic  conception,  from  which  it  differs  in  containing  or 
  comprehending  more  attributes,  and  extending  to  fewer 
  individuals.  Thus  {man}  is  a  species,  under  {animal}  as  a 
  genus;  and  man,  in  its  turn,  may  be  regarded  as  a  genus 
  with  respect  to  {European},  {American},  or  the  like  as 
  species. 
 
  3.  In  science,  a  more  or  less  permanent  group  of  existing 
  things  or  beings,  associated  according  to  attributes,  or 
  properties  determined  by  scientific  observation. 
 
  Note:  In  mineralogy  and  chemistry,  objects  which  possess  the 
  same  definite  chemical  structure,  and  are  fundamentally 
  the  same  in  crystallization  and  physical  characters, 
  are  classed  as  belonging  to  a  species.  In  zo["o]logy 
  and  botany,  a  species  is  an  ideal  group  of  individuals 
  which  are  believed  to  have  descended  from  common 
  ancestors,  which  agree  in  essential  characteristics, 
  and  are  capable  of  indefinitely  continued  fertile 
  reproduction  through  the  sexes.  A  species,  as  thus 
  defined,  differs  from  a  variety  or  subspecies  only  in 
  the  greater  stability  of  its  characters  and  in  the 
  absence  of  individuals  intermediate  between  the  related 
  groups. 
 
  4.  A  sort;  a  kind  a  variety;  as  a  species  of  low  cunning;  a 
  species  of  generosity;  a  species  of  cloth. 
 
  5.  Coin,  or  coined  silver,  gold,  ot  other  metal,  used  as  a 
  circulating  medium;  specie.  [Obs.] 
 
  There  was  in  the  splendor  of  the  Roman  empire,  a 
  less  quantity  of  current  species  in  Europe  than 
  there  is  now  --Arbuthnot. 
 
  6.  A  public  spectacle  or  exhibition.  [Obs.]  --Bacon. 
 
  7.  (Pharmacy) 
  a  A  component  part  of  compound  medicine;  a  simple. 
  b  (Med.)  An  officinal  mixture  or  compound  powder  of  any 
  kind  esp.,  one  used  for  making  an  aromatic  tea  or 
  tisane;  a  tea  mixture.  --Quincy. 
 
  8.  (Civil  Law)  The  form  or  shape  given  to  materials;  fashion 
  or  shape;  form  figure.  --Burill. 
 
  {Incipient  species}  (Zo["o]l.),  a  subspecies,  or  variety, 
  which  is  in  process  of  becoming  permanent,  and  thus 
  changing  to  a  true  species,  usually  by  isolation  in 
  localities  from  which  other  varieties  are  excluded. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  species 
  n  1:  (biology)  taxonomic  group  whose  members  can  interbreed 
  2:  a  specific  kind  of  something:  "a  species  of  molecule";  "a 
  species  of  villainy"  [syn:  {variety}] 




more about species