interbreed
Americanverb (used with object)
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interbreeds,
present (3rd person singular)
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interbred,
past participle, past
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interbreeding
present participle
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to crossbreed (a plant or animal).
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to cause to breed together.
verb (used without object)
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interbreeds,
present (3rd person singular)
-
interbred,
past participle, past
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interbreeding
present participle
-
to crossbreed.
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to breed or mate with a closely related individual, as in a small, closed population.
verb
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(intr) to breed within a single family or strain so as to produce particular characteristics in the offspring
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another term for crossbreed
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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interbreedsimple
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interbreedssimple
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have interbredperfect
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has interbredperfect
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am interbreedingprogressive
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are interbreedingprogressive
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is interbreedingprogressive
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have been interbreedingperfect progressive
-
has been interbreedingperfect progressive
Past
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interbredsimple
-
had interbredperfect
-
was interbreedingprogressive
-
were interbreedingprogressive
-
had been interbreedingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of interbreed
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:
Even though different species can still interbreed, these inversions limit how much their DNA mixes, helping maintain distinct traits.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 1, 2026
Even if breeding succeeds, it can lead to infertile offspring, such as mules, or to the two species gradually merging into one as they interbreed over generations.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 17, 2024
These two broods may actually overlap — but probably not interbreed — in a small area near central Illinois, entomologists said.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 1, 2024
Barred owls and northern spotted owls are closely related and can even interbreed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2024
But if wild populations with variations in genotype keep interbreeding, Dobzhansky knew, a new species would never be formed: a species, after all, is fundamentally defined by its inability to interbreed with another.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
It interbreeds in Siberia with C. caniceps, an East Siberian form.
From The History of the European Fauna by Robert Francis Scharff
Gavæus frontalis interbreeds freely with domesticated cattle of all kinds.
From Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon by Robert Armitage Sterndale
Some naturalists would separate them from the other cats, but the connection is supplied by the last species which, though possessing certain features of the lynx, yet interbreeds with the true cats.
From Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon by Robert Armitage Sterndale
This hominin descended from a lineage dating back about 1.8 million years and appears to have interbred with Denisovans in Eurasia, probably more than 200,000 years ago.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
In 2010 scientists reconstructed the Neanderthal genome -- blockbuster research that allowed for analysis making clear that the species interbred.
From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026
Those first modern humans that had interbred with Neanderthals and lived alongside them died out completely in Europe 40,000 years ago - but not before their offspring had spread further out into the world.
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2024
This means Thorin's genome was full of the variants one usually sees with recent inbreeding, a striking feature given other modern humans lived nearby with whom Thorin's Neanderthal community could have interbred.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2024
But Senecas and Hurons not only fought but interbred.
From The Hidden Children by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
Now, researchers at UC Berkeley have identified specific regions of the modern human genome that came from these unidentified ancestors and estimated when the interbreeding occurred.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
The researchers also detected significant interbreeding among the frogs.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 9, 2026
But over hundreds of millennia, human migrations resulted in interbreeding, researchers say.
From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026
"By interbreeding with the Neanderthals we got a quick fix to our immune systems."
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2024
Jenkin’s central problem with Darwin was this: if hereditary traits kept “blending” with each other in every generation, then what would keep any variation from being diluted out immediately by interbreeding?
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.
