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  • genetic
    genetic
    adjective
    pertaining or according to genetics.
  • -genetic
    -genetic
    a suffix of adjectives corresponding to nouns ending in -genesis:
Synonyms

genetic

1 American  
[juh-net-ik] / dʒəˈnɛt ɪk /
Also genetical

adjective

  1. Biology. pertaining or according to genetics.

  2. of, relating to, or produced by genes; genic.

  3. of, relating to, or influenced by geneses or origins.


-genetic 2 American  
  1. a suffix of adjectives corresponding to nouns ending in -genesis:

    parthenogenetic.


genetic British  
/ dʒɪˈnɛtɪk /

adjective

  1. of or relating to genetics, genes, or the origin of something

"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

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of genetic

First recorded in 1825–35; gene(sis) + -tic

Explanation

Anything genetic has to do with your genes and DNA. You inherited your mom's eye color because it's genetic. Genetic traits run in families: biological families, anyway. Anything genetic is related to your DNA, the material you inherited from your biological parents. Hair color, eye color, and other physical traits are genetic, and so are some diseases. Scientists do genetic research to see how knowing what’s in your genes could help keep you well. If you're healthy, one reason is good genetics.

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Vocabulary lists containing genetic

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:

She then mapped the evolutionary relationships among those sequences and used statistical methods to estimate the most likely genetic sequences carried by their common ancestors, extending the reconstruction back roughly 160 million years.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026

That allowed scientists to study naturally occurring cancers from a large number of cats and compare the genetic patterns among different tumor types.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 27, 2026

As genetic assessment became more accessible, startups promised genetically informed guidance on what to eat, what to drink, even whom to date.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026

While many cases occur without a known cause, inherited forms caused by genetic mutations will strike generation after generation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

The question of how sequential genetic circuits can “actualize” the development of an organism is addressed in a subsequent chapter.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

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