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

Oedipus, the blind and banished King of Thebes, has come in his wanderings to Colonus, a deme of Athens, led by his daughter Antigone.

From Oedipus Trilogy by Storr, Francis

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 Hall, Joseph

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

When they are examined, they are asked, first, 'Who is your father, and of what deme? who is your father's father? who is your mother? who is your mother's father, and of what deme?'

From The Athenian Constitution by Kenyon, Frederic G. (Frederic George), Sir