species

Definitions

1. 1.(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.
2. 2.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 zoölogy 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.
3. 3.A sort; a kind; a variety; as, a species of low cunning; a species of generosity; a species of cloth.
4. 4.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.
5. 5.A public spectacle or exhibition. [Obs.] Bacon.
6. 6.(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.
7. 7.(Civil Law) The form or shape given to materials; fashion or shape; form; figure. Burill. Incipient species (Zoöl.), 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.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Synonyms

Related questions

• What does "species" mean?
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Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is species.

• What is a sort; a kind; a variety; as, a species of low cunning; a species of generosity; a species of cloth called?
• What is a public spectacle or exhibition. [Obs.] Bacon called?