acquired characteristic
a characteristic of an organism that results from increased use or disuse of an organ or the effects of the environment and cannot be inherited: See also Lamarckism
Words Nearby acquired characteristic
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
How to use acquired characteristic in a sentence
They acquired characteristic modes of speaking, of thinking.
Stage-coach and Tavern Days | Alice Morse EarleAn acquired characteristic I don't think you can depend on so much.
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Forty-Second Annual Meeting | Northern Nut Growers Association"An acquired characteristic, I assure you," said Temple, remembering his first meeting with Betty.
The Incomplete Amorist | E. Nesbit
Scientific definitions for acquired characteristic
[ ə-kwīrd′ ]
A nonhereditary change of function or structure in a plant or animal made in response to the environment. Acquired characteristics include bodily changes brought about by disease or by repeated use or disuse of a body part (as in the building or atrophy of muscle tissue). The heritability of acquired characteristics was advocated by certain biological theorists like Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and rejected by Charles Darwin in his formulation of the theory of evolution.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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