deme
Americannoun
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one of the administrative divisions of ancient Attica and of modern Greece.
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Biology. a local population of organisms of the same kind, especially one in which the genetic mix is similar throughout the group.
noun
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(in preclassical Greece) the territory inhabited by a tribe
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(in ancient Attica) a geographical unit of local government
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biology a group of individuals within a species that possess particular characteristics of cytology, genetics, etc
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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.
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See also population
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of deme
First recorded in 1620–30, deme is from the Greek word dêmos a district, the people, commons
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When Feldstein left aca deme for Washington in the summer of 1982, he entered a foreign world.
From Time Magazine Archive
We ȝieueð uneaðe for his luue a steche of ure breade Ne þenche we naht þar þat sal deme þe quica ⁊ þe deade.
From Selections from early Middle English, 1130-1250 Part I: Texts by Joseph Hall
Certainly, if the reading is correct, in the light of all the remainder of the comedy we should naturally translate: "in the sixth year, having come into my deme, I salute you gladly."
From The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 by Various
There are, of course, little valleys, and two or three villages, one of them the old deme Brauron, which they now pronounce Vravron.
From Rambles and Studies in Greece by J. P. Mahaffy
Chaerephon of the deme of Sphettia asked him whether he thought a gnat buzzed through its proboscis or through its rear.
From The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1 by Aristophanes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
