differentia
Americannoun
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the character or attribute by which one species is distinguished from all others of the same genus.
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the character or basic factor by which one entity is distinguished from another.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of differentia
From Latin, dating back to 1820–30; see origin at difference
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:
To quote the differentia of Sir Oliver Lodge: “A solid has volume and shape; a liquid has volume, but no shape; a gas has neither volume nor shape.”
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 4 "G" to "Gaskell, Elizabeth" by Various
The differentia of aesthetic pleasure not its universality.
From The Sense of Beauty Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory by Santayana, George
The differentia should include all the members that the term denotes, and it should exclude all that it does not denote.
From English: Composition and Literature by Webster, W. F. (William Franklin)
Musset, who was very much of a free-lance in the contest, maintained indeed that the differentia of the Romantic was the copious use of this part of speech.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 2 "French Literature" to "Frost, William" by Various
Objectification the differentia of aesthetic pleasure, 44 et seq.
From The Sense of Beauty Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory by Santayana, George
All people can see this; but not all people can see further, or define the differentiae.
From Thoughts on Religion by Gore, Charles
It is the mark of substances and of differentiae that, in all propositions of which they form the predicate, they are predicated univocally.
From The Categories by Edghill, E. M.
But while none of these twenty or more definitions is logical in the sense just defined, they all present one or other of the differentiae given by those in the text.
From Darwin, and After Darwin, Volume 2 Post-Darwinian Questions: Heredity and Utility by Romanes, George John
But it is also essential to the understanding of this thesis that the differentiae of the hereditary factor should be clearly grasped.
From Evolution in Modern Thought by Weismann, August
If genera are different and co-ordinate, their differentiae are themselves different in kind.
From The Categories by Edghill, E. M.
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.
