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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

One type of geographic variation, called a cline, can be seen as populations of a given species vary gradually across an ecological gradient.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

Explain what a cline is and identify an example.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

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

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 cline is bent in such a manner that the terminal subspecies occur together.

From Speciation of the Wandering Shrew by Findley, James S.