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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cline.

A gradation in a character or phenotype within a species, deme, or other systematic group.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/klaɪn/
  1. A gradation in a character or phenotype within a species, deme, or other systematic group.

  2. Any graduated continuum.

Where this word comes from

From Ancient Greek κλῑ́νω (klī́nō, “to lean, incline”). Introduced by English evolutionary biologist and eugenicist Julian Huxley in 1938 after British mycologist John Ramsbottom suggested the term.

noun/klaɪn/
  1. A generalized circle.

Where this word comes from

From c(ircle) + line; compare circline.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.