survival of the fittest

1 synonym for survival of the fittest, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Noun phrase — The principle that the organisms best suited to their environment are the ones most likely to live long enough to reproduce and pass on their traits.

Synonyms

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

natural selection

How to use survival of the fittest

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

pure survival of the fittest the law of survival of the fittest

Neutral in casual scientific talk, but dated and imprecise in technical biology; often used loosely, and sometimes misused to justify social inequality.

Etymology

Coined by the philosopher Herbert Spencer in Principles of Biology (1864) after reading Darwin, and later adopted by Darwin himself in the fifth edition of On the Origin of Species.

Full origin of survival of the fittest →

Frequently asked questions

What does 'fittest' actually mean here?

It means best fitted to the environment, not strongest or healthiest. Fitness in biology is measured by how many surviving offspring an organism leaves, so a small, well-camouflaged animal can be fitter than a large, powerful one.

What is the difference between survival of the fittest and natural selection?

Natural selection is the scientific mechanism: heritable traits that improve reproductive success become more common over generations. 'Survival of the fittest' is a slogan for it, and biologists tend to avoid the phrase because it invites the circular reading that whoever survives must have been the fittest.

Did Darwin invent the phrase?

No. Herbert Spencer coined it, and Darwin only adopted it in a later edition of On the Origin of Species as an alternative wording for natural selection.

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