Darwinian

American  

[dahr-win-ee-uhn] / dɑrˈwɪn i ən /

adjective

1. (sometimes lowercase) pertaining to Charles Darwin or his doctrines.

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noun

1. a follower of Charles Darwin; a person who accepts or advocates Darwinism.

Darwinian British  

/ dɑːˈwɪnɪən /

adjective

1. of or relating to Charles Darwin or his theory of evolution by natural selection

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noun

1. a person who accepts, supports, or uses this theory

Other Word Forms

• anti-Darwinian noun
• non-Darwinian adjective
• post-Darwinian adjective
• pre-Darwinian adjective
• pro-Darwinian adjective

Etymology

Origin of Darwinian

First recorded in 1855–60; Darwin + -ian

Example Sentences

It applied Darwinian logic to human activity - including fighting, feeding, comfort and sex.

From BBC • Apr. 20, 2026

"The world has become very Darwinian again," he warned.

From Barron's • Jan. 23, 2026

Omri Yoffe, CEO of Vi, a roughly 115-person AI company that focuses on healthcare, recently told employees they need to think of the current moment in almost Darwinian terms.

From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 27, 2025

“Survivor” bowed for the first time before 9/11 and established itself as a Darwinian experiment with the motto “Outwit, Outplay, Outlast.”

From Salon • May 31, 2025

For Darwinian evolution to work, the mechanism of inheritance had to possess an intrinsic capacity to conserve information without becoming diluted or dispersed.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee