deme

American  

[deem] / dim /

noun

1. one of the administrative divisions of ancient Attica and of modern Greece.

2. Biology. a local population of organisms of the same kind, especially one in which the genetic mix is similar throughout the group.

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deme British  

/ diːm /

noun

1. 1. (in preclassical Greece) the territory inhabited by a tribe

   2. (in ancient Attica) a geographical unit of local government

2. biology a group of individuals within a species that possess particular characteristics of cytology, genetics, etc

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deme Scientific  

/ dēm /

1. A small, locally interbreeding group of organisms within a larger population. Demes are isolated reproductively from other members of their species, although the isolation may only be partial and is not necessarily permanent. Because they share a somewhat restricted gene pool, members of a deme generally differ morphologically to some degree from members of other demes.

2. See also population

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Other Word Forms

• demic adjective

Etymology

Origin of deme

First recorded in 1620–30, deme is from the Greek word dêmos a district, the people, commons

Example Sentences

When Feldstein left aca deme for Washington in the summer of 1982, he entered a foreign world.

From Time Magazine Archive

So forto deme in mannes wit, 7730 It helpeth more a man to have His oghne good, than forto crave Of othre men and make him bounde, Wher elles he mai stonde unbounde.

From Confessio Amantis, or, Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins by Macaulay, G. C. (George Campbell)

They mighte deme thing they never er thoughte!

From Troilus and Criseyde by Chaucer, Geoffrey

Set si non possis a prima demere primam; Procedens, vnum de limite deme sequenti; 74 Et demptum pro denario reputabis ab illo, 60 Subtrahe totaliter numerum quem proposuisti.

From The Earliest Arithmetics in English by Steele, Robert

Scis ipse volucres Quae rota volvat opes; has ergo, hic fige perennis45 Fundamenta Domus Petrensi in rupe, suamque Fortunae sic deme rotam.

From The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume II (of 2) by Crashaw, Richard