geneticist
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of geneticist
Explanation
A geneticist is a scientist who studies the traits that are passed from parents to their offspring. If you're fascinated with DNA, you might want to be a geneticist. Genetics is the branch of biology that focuses on genes, and it's practiced by geneticists. These scientists study the way genes are passed from one generation to the next, including how they vary or mutate. Some geneticists work with plants, improving their genetic resistance to disease or pests; others counsel patients who have inherited diseases or conditions. Geneticist is from genetics, originally defined as "pertaining to origins," from the Greek root genesis, "origin."
Vocabulary lists containing geneticist
Genetics - Middle School
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Genetics - High School
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Powell, the geneticist in Indiana, is a cancer biologist by training and has heard similar claims before.
From Slate ● Mar. 30, 2026
It wasn’t just the incident with the gown, or the geneticist assuring me that prostate cancer would be my major BRCA-related concern.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
She is an Indian-born Welsh medical geneticist and an honorary professor at Cardiff University.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025
Marketing unproven promises of vague optimization, University of Virginia behavioral geneticist Eric Turkheimer said, is “corporate eugenics.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2025
Partly by happenstance, the U.S. geneticist James Neel and the U.S. anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon flew into Yanomami country in the midst of the epidemic.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
![]()
Such studies could help clinical geneticists better understand inherited diseases and reveal how environmental influences, including diet, may affect epigenetic inheritance across generations.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 1, 2026
But the new study from geneticists at the University of Pennsylvania suggests the phenomenon has more social origins, and were actually the result of "long-standing mating preferences."
From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026
When the Romans left, Anglo-Saxon place names replaced Celtic ones, but geneticists estimate that in the parts of England closest to Germany, only about 10% of the population were Anglo-Saxon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
In one 2010 study, a team of geneticists found autism occurred in approximately one in 271 Amish children.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2025
Cell biologists look; geneticists count; biochemists clean, the scientist Arthur Kornberg once said.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
![]()
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.