genus

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁os Proto-Italic *genos Latin genusbor. English genus Borrowed from Latin genus (“birth, origin, a race, sort, kind”) from the root gen- in Latin gignō (“to beget, produce”). Doublet of gender and genre, further related to kin.

1. A category in the classification of organisms, ranking below family (Lat. familia) and above species.

   “All magnolias belong to the genus Magnolia.”

   “Other species of the genus Bos are often called cattle or wild cattle.”

2. A category in the classification of organisms, ranking below family (Lat. familia) and above species.

   “In most cases, at subsequent mentions of the binomial name you can abbreviate the genus with no danger of confusing the reader.”

3. A group with common attributes.

   “Recollection is one of a whole genus of effects which are more or less peculiar to the phenomena that we naturally call "mental."”

4. A natural number representing any of several related measures of the complexity of a given manifold or graph.
5. Within a definition, a broader category of the defined concept.
6. A type of tuning or intonation, used within an Ancient Greek tetrachord.