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• cline
  cline

  noun

  the gradual change in certain characteristics exhibited by members of a series of adjacent populations of organisms of the same species.
• Cline
  Cline

  noun

  Patsy Virginia Patterson Hensley, 1932–63, U.S. country singer.
• -cline
  -cline

  combining form

  indicating a slope

cline

¹ American  

[klahyn] / klaɪn /

noun

1. Biology. the gradual change in certain characteristics exhibited by members of a series of adjacent populations of organisms of the same species.

2. Linguistics. (in systemic linguistics) a scale of continuous gradation; continuum.

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Cline ² American  

[klahyn] / klaɪn /

noun

1. Patsy Virginia Patterson Hensley, 1932–63, U.S. country singer.

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-cline ¹ British  

combining form

1. indicating a slope

   anticline

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cline ² British  

/ klaɪn /

noun

1. a continuous variation in form between members of a species having a wide variable geographical or ecological range

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Cline ³ British  

/ klaɪn /

noun

1. Patsy , original name Virginia Patterson Hensley . 1932–63, US country singer; her bestselling records include "Walking After Midnight", "I Fall to Pieces", and "Leavin' On Your Mind"

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cline Scientific  

/ klīn /

1. A gradual change in an inherited characteristic across the geographic range of a species, usually correlated with an environmental transition such as altitude, temperature, or moisture. For example, the body size in a species of warm-blooded animals tends to be larger in cooler climates (a latitudinal cline), while the flowering time of a plant may tend to be later at higher altitudes (an altitudinal cline). In species in which the gene flow between adjacent populations is high, the cline is typically smooth, whereas in populations with restricted gene flow the cline usually occurs as a series of relatively abrupt changes from one group to the next.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• clinally
  adverb
• clinal
  adjective
• -clinal
  combining form

Etymology

Origin of cline

1935–40; < Greek klī́nein to lean ¹

Explanation

In biology, a cline is a gradual change in a trait or characteristic across a population of a species. This gradient occurs over a geographic area where environmental factors, such as altitude or temperature, vary. One example of a cline is the variation in zebra stripes across Africa. In the North, zebras have bold, black-and-white stripes over their entire bodies. Moving south, the stripes become fainter and more brownish-gray. In the most southern regions, their stripes are even more faded, and the lower legs are solid white. In a cline, there is no abrupt, sudden change; rather, traits change gradually across a spectrum based on the animal's geographic range.

Example Sentences

A cline is a change in ecological conditions over a geographic distance.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

A cline is a type of geographic variation that is seen in populations of a given species that vary gradually across an ecological gradient.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

Rather than the gradual global cline predicted under a serial founder effect, fitting a quadratic model will tend to identify steeper localized gradients in phonemic diversity.

From Science Magazine • Feb. 9, 2012

Van Tuyl and Pereltsvaig make much of the fact that the global cline in phonemic diversity does not hold within all continents.

From Science Magazine • Feb. 9, 2012

The departure of Belisarius, summoned to the East by his master in order to conduct another Page 342 Persian war, left the newly won provinces on an in cline sloping downwards to anarchy.

From Theodoric the Goth Barbarian Champion of Civilisation by Hodgkin, Thomas