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

• -clinal combining form
• clinal adjective
• clinally adverb

Etymology

Origin of cline

1935–40; < Greek klī́nein to lean ¹

Example Sentences

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

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

For example, a latitudinal cline is the decrease in temperature towards the Earth’s poles, and an altitudinal cline is the decrease in temperature with increase in altitude.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

Using other databases, researchers had found that the number of genes that contribute to tallness in Europeans increased on a cline from south to north.

From Science Magazine • Jan. 3, 2019

Therefore, the observation of an Africa-based phoneme inventory cline does not generalize to other linguistic characteristics of a similar kind.

From Science Magazine • Feb. 9, 2012

There seems to be a cline from paler snakes having fewer stripes in the north to darker snakes in the south.

From A Revision of Snakes of the Genus Conophis (Family Colubridae, from Middle America) by Wellman, John