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Natural selection shaped the human brain to be drawn toward aspects of nature that enhance our survival and reproduction, like verdant landscapes and docile creatures. There is no payoff to getting the warm fuzzies in the presence of rats, snakes, mosquitoes, cockroaches, herpes simplex and the rabies virus.
Paul Bloom

Meaning of "natural selection" in the English dictionary

Dictionary
DICTIONARY
section

PRONUNCIATION OF NATURAL SELECTION

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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF NATURAL SELECTION

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Natural selection is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES NATURAL SELECTION MEAN IN ENGLISH?

natural selection

Natural selection

Natural selection is the gradual process by which biological traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of the effect of inherited traits on the differential reproductive success of organisms interacting with their environment. It is a key mechanism of evolution. The term "natural selection" was popularized by Charles Darwin who intended it to be compared with artificial selection, now more commonly referred to as selective breeding. Variation exists within all populations of organisms. This occurs partly because random mutations occur in the genome of an individual organism, and these mutations can be passed to offspring. Throughout the individuals’ lives, their genomes interact with their environments to cause variations in traits. Individuals with certain variants of the trait may survive and reproduce more than individuals with other, less successful, variants. Therefore the population evolves. Factors that affect reproductive success are also important, an issue that Charles Darwin developed in his ideas on sexual selection, for example.

Definition of natural selection in the English dictionary

The definition of natural selection in the dictionary is a process resulting in the survival of those individuals from a population of animals or plants that are best adapted to the prevailing environmental conditions. The survivors tend to produce more offspring than those less well adapted, so that the characteristics of the population change over time, thus accounting for the process of evolution.

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE NATURAL SELECTION

natural immunity
natural justice
natural language
natural language processing
natural law
natural logarithm
natural monopoly
natural number
natural philosopher
natural philosophy
natural rate of unemployment
natural resources
natural science
natural scientist
natural slope
natural theologian
natural theology
natural varnish
natural virtues
natural wastage

WORDS THAT END LIKE NATURAL SELECTION

accreditation
action
attraction
auction
collection
connection
construction
correction
course of action
detection
direction
fiction
function
introduction
production
protection
reaction
satisfaction
section
selection
transaction

Synonyms and antonyms of natural selection in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

Translation of «natural selection» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF NATURAL SELECTION

Find out the translation of natural selection to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of natural selection from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «natural selection» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

自然选择
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

la selección natural
570 millions of speakers

English

natural selection
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

प्राकृतिक चयन
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

الانتقاء الطبيعي
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

естественный отбор
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

seleção natural
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

প্রাকৃতিক নির্বাচন
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

la sélection naturelle
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

pilihan semulajadi
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

natürlichen Selektion
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

自然淘汰
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

자연 선택
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Pilihan alam
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

chọn lọc tự nhiên
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

இயற்கை தேர்வு
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

नैसर्गिक निवड
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

Doğal seçilim
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

selezione naturale
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

dobór naturalny
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

природний відбір
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

selecția naturală
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

η φυσική επιλογή
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

natuurlike seleksie
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

naturligt urval
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

naturlig utvalg
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of natural selection

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «NATURAL SELECTION»

The term «natural selection» is quite widely used and occupies the 38.883 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Quite widely used
82
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «natural selection» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of natural selection
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «natural selection».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «NATURAL SELECTION» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «natural selection» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «natural selection» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about natural selection

EXAMPLES

10 QUOTES WITH «NATURAL SELECTION»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word natural selection.
1
Peter Agre
Natural selection is not an inflammatory phrase; evolution is.
2
Michael Behe
It is a shock to us in the twentieth century to discover, from observations science has made, that the fundamental mechanisms of life cannot be ascribed to natural selection, and therefore were designed. But we must deal with our shock as best we can and go on.
3
Michael Behe
It was a shock to people of the nineteenth century when they discovered, from observations science had made, that many features of the biological world could be ascribed to the elegant principle of natural selection.
4
Michael Behe
Since natural selection requires a function to select, an irreducibly complex biological system, if there is such a thing, would have to arise as an integrated unit for natural selection to have anything to act on.
5
Paul Bettany
The difficulty of looking at a system like natural selection if you have any sort of moral sense yourself, is almost what makes it beautiful.
6
Paul Bloom
Natural selection shaped the human brain to be drawn toward aspects of nature that enhance our survival and reproduction, like verdant landscapes and docile creatures. There is no payoff to getting the warm fuzzies in the presence of rats, snakes, mosquitoes, cockroaches, herpes simplex and the rabies virus.
7
Paul Bloom
The real problem with natural selection is that it makes no intuitive sense. It is like quantum physics; we may intellectually grasp it, but it will never feel right to us.
8
John Tyler Bonner
It is hard to explain the huge variety of diatoms - a microorganism that has 100,000 species - in terms of natural selection.
9
John Tyler Bonner
There are good reasons why natural selection has become widely accepted as an explanation of evolutionary development. When applied to mammals and other large animals, it fits perfectly. But we cannot assume that all evolutionary steps arise from selection, particularly when looking at smaller animals.
10
Mark Carwardine
The Galapagos Islands are probably the most famous wildlife-watching destination in the world. And no wonder - it's almost impossible to exaggerate the sheer spectacle of the place that provided inspiration for Charles Darwin's ground-breaking theory of natural selection.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «NATURAL SELECTION»

Discover the use of natural selection in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to natural selection and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Natural Selection: A Novel
Then the real hunt begins. . . . Loaded with astonishing action sequences, Natural Selection is that rare breed of thriller, filled with intricately layered research, real three-dimensional characters, and tornado pacing.
Dave Freedman, 2006
2
Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current ...
His Adaptation and Natural Selection, now a classic of science literature, is a thorough and convincing essay in defense of Darwinism; its suggestions for developing effective principles for dealing with the evolution debate and its ...
George Christopher Williams, 2008
3
Natural Selection
" Natural Selection is made all the more remarkable in that its theories were so advanced for their time that science could not prove them until the emergence of modern evolutionary synthesis between the 1930s and 1950s, almost a century ...
Charles Darwin, 2010
4
Charles Darwin's Natural Selection: Being the Second Part of ...
This volume has been edited and annotated and includes a cross-indexing to the Origin. Natural Selection is the manuscript on which Darwin based his landmark volume, On the Origin of Species.
Charles Darwin, R. C. Stauffer, 1987
5
Natural Selection in the Wild
These are the purposes of John Endler's book.
John A. Endler, 1986
6
Natural Selection
When sporadic Clan incursions into Inner Sphere territory supply mercenaries with more work than they can handle, Khan Phelan Ward and Prince Victor Davion--cousins, rulers, and enemies--must decide what to do. Original.
Michael A. Stackpole, 1992
7
Evolutionary Game Theory, Natural Selection, and Darwinian ...
The evolutionary game theory developed in this 2005 book provides the tools necessary for understanding many of nature's mysteries, including co-evolution, speciation, extinction and the major biological questions regarding fit of form and ...
Thomas L. Vincent, Joel S. Brown, 2005
8
Natural Selection
James has always lived in the shadow of his wealthy and hip best friend, Stefan, except in his relationship with Victoria, the girl of his dreams, until he does the unthinkable and engineers a meeting between his best friend and his best ...
Bill Dare, 2006
9
Contributions to the theory of natural selection
Laws from which the Origin of Species may be deduced — Mr. Darwin's Metaphors liable to Misconception — A case of Orchis-structure explained by Natural Selection — Adaptation brought about by General Laws — Beauty in Nature — How ...
Alfred Russel Wallace, 1871
10
Beyond Natural Selection
proposes an approach to evolution that is more in harmony with modern science than Darwinism or neo-Darwinism In Beyond Natural Selection, Wesson points out that Darwinsim and neo-Darwinism explain only part of the richness of contemporary ...
Robert Wesson, 1993

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «NATURAL SELECTION»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term natural selection is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Ducati Multistrada – RIDING IMPRESSION All roads lead to roam.
Whatever the case, this is one smooth Desmo. Ducati Multistrada static side view Red is the natural selection, although silver is also an option. «Cycleworld, Jul 15»
2
Is Wayward Pines Genetically Plausible?
That's enough time for geographically separating gene pools with a sprinkling of mutations, plus natural selection acting on sun versus no sun, ... «PLoS Blogs, Jul 15»
3
A Mathematician's View of Evolution
He concludes that while biochemistry texts often pay lip-service to the idea that natural selection of random mutations can explain everything in ... «Discovery Institute, Jul 15»
4
Artist raises redwoods in Canada to fight climate change
This use of natural selection helps the researchers winnow out which species might not survive. “We're looking at those kinds of things rather ... «National Observer, Jul 15»
5
Community news for Glastonbury edition
Natural Selection (Aug. 6 and Aug. 20): Natural Selection celebrates the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species" and ... «Hartford Courant, Jul 15»
6
Science & Philosophy: A Beautiful Friendship
Many Victorian-era scientists and philosophers were so enthusiastic about the thrilling new scientific theory of natural selection that they thought it could be ... «Philosophy Now, Jul 15»
7
The war on feral cats will need many different weapons
The theory is that natural selection and learning will lead to improved survival and behaviour of successive generations of threatened species. «The Conversation AU, Jul 15»
8
When Paths Diverge
As Edward O. Wilson said, we are “about to decommission natural selection … Soon we must look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become” ... «Philosophy Now, Jul 15»
9
The Prisoner's Dilemma and The Evolution of Morality
Rather the strategy is worked out through natural selection, which gradually programs the fish to respond appropriately to environmental stimuli. Other strategies ... «Philosophy Now, Jul 15»
10
Why the BJP is appointing C-listers to head top institutions
Despite the Monkey Trial, natural selection eventually became part of curricula across the United States. In recent years, however, conservative ... «Scroll.in, Jul 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Natural selection [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/natural-selection>. Apr 2024 ».
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