darwinism — meaning in English

English meaning

• darwinism noun Charles Darwin's theory regarding the evolution of living organisms through natural selection (set out chiefly in his works On the Origin of Species, 1859; and The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1871); also, belief in this theory.

Senses

darwinism is used for these senses in English:

• Darwinism The principles of natural selection set out in Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859), more strictly defined by August Weismann and developed by other authors into a central part of the modern evolutionary synthesis.

darwinism — full definition

1. noun Charles Darwin's theory regarding the evolution of living organisms through natural selection (set out chiefly in his works On the Origin of Species, 1859; and The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1871); also, belief in this theory.
2. noun Short for neo-Darwinism (“the synthesis of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection with the modern genetic understanding of heredity”).
3. noun Chiefly preceded by a descriptive word.
4. noun Any of various theories in biology which apply aspects of Darwin's theory (noun sense 1) such as adaptation, competition, or gradual evolution; also, belief in such a theory.