Cline

¹

[klahyn]

noun

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

cline

²

[klahyn]

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.

-cline

¹

combining form

1. indicating a slope

   anticline

Cline

²

/ 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"

cline

³

/ klaɪn /

noun

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

cline

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.

Other Word Forms

• clinal adjective
• clinally adverb
• -clinal combining form

Word History and Origins

Origin of Cline¹

1935–40; < Greek klī́nein to lean ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of Cline¹

back formation from _incline

Origin of Cline²

C20: from Greek klinein to lean

Example Sentences

This sentimental and self-indulgent social-dance affair to musical selections from Antonín Dvořák, Patsy Cline, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder and Donna Summer goes nowhere, repeatedly.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

He got on the phone to his boss, Ray Cline, at CIA headquarters in Virginia.

Read more on Literature

Cline passed the news up the ladder to McGeorge Bundy, Kennedy’s national security adviser.

Read more on Literature

“Those things we’ve been worrying about,” Cline said, “it looks as though we’ve really got something.”

Read more on Literature

Someone like Cowboy Copas—who would die in the 1963 plane crash that killed Patsy Cline—is the kind of now-obscure King artist Mr. Oyediran revisits.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal