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

“And we’ll now, in my judgment, go through a Darwinian moment,” Golub said.

From Barron's • Feb. 6, 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

This year, researchers took a second look at Darwinian selection and proposed a bold new idea about how *gestures around* all this evolves, calling it the “law of increasing functional information.”

From Salon • Dec. 29, 2023

Sternhagen, an actor of exquisite balance, is who you wanted beside you riding out a Darwinian storm.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 20, 2023

It feels less Darwinian than Swiftian; it calls to mind a long-ago dart attributed to G. K. Chesterton: when there aren’t enough hats to go around, the problem isn’t solved by lopping off some heads.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt