natural selectionn.
/ˌnatʃ(ə)rəl sᵻˈlɛkʃn/, /ˌnatʃ(ə)rl̩ sᵻˈlɛkʃn/, U.S. /ˈˌnætʃər(ə)l səˈlɛkʃ(ə)n/, /ˈˌnætʃr(ə)l səˈlɛkʃ(ə)n/ Biology.
The evolutionary theory, originally proposed by Darwin, of the preferential survival and reproduction of organisms better adapted to their environment.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > evolution > [noun] > selection
natural selection1842
selection1857
survival of the fittest1864
selection value1892
organic selection1896
post-selection1896
orthoselection1907
survival value1912
kin selection1964
r selection1967
1842 C. Darwin Pencil Sketch (Cambr. Univ. Libr. MS DAR 6) f. 20 Natural Selection.
1857 C. Darwin Lett. (1887) II. 123 There is such an unerring power at work, or Natural Selection (the title of my book), which selects exclusively for the good of each organic being.
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species iv. 81 This preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection.
1875 C. Lyell & L. Lyell Princ. Geol. (ed. 12) II. xli. 421 Variation and Natural Selection will be efficacious in forming distinct races in separate islands.
1911 J. A. Thomson Biol. Seasons iv. 333 A survey of the Winter-sleepers seems to show that the life-saving reaction must have arisen by..natural selection.
1946 A. Nelson Princ. Agric. Bot. xxiii. 457 It is by natural selection over long periods of time that hardy and non-hardy strains have evolved.
1989 M. Spufford Celebration vi. 73 I was surrounded on the metabolic wards by the failures of creation, the drop-outs of natural selection.
2000 Econ. & Philos. 16 119 A process similar to natural selection is at work within the economy.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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natural selection
natural selection: the operation of natural causes by which those individuals of a species that are best adapted to the environment tend to be preserved and to transmit their characters, while those less adapted die out, so that in the course of generations the degree of adaptation to the environment tends progressively to increase. sexual selection: see sexual adj. and n. Compounds 1.extracted from selectionn.<
n.1842as lemmas