geneticist
Americannoun
-
geneticists
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of geneticist
Explanation
A geneticist is a scientist who studies the traits that are passed from parents to their offspring. If you're fascinated with DNA, you might want to be a geneticist. Genetics is the branch of biology that focuses on genes, and it's practiced by geneticists. These scientists study the way genes are passed from one generation to the next, including how they vary or mutate. Some geneticists work with plants, improving their genetic resistance to disease or pests; others counsel patients who have inherited diseases or conditions. Geneticist is from genetics, originally defined as "pertaining to origins," from the Greek root genesis, "origin."
Vocabulary lists containing geneticist
Genetics - Middle School
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Genetics - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
Powell, the geneticist in Indiana, is a cancer biologist by training and has heard similar claims before.
From Slate ● Mar. 30, 2026
It wasn’t just the incident with the gown, or the geneticist assuring me that prostate cancer would be my major BRCA-related concern.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
She is an Indian-born Welsh medical geneticist and an honorary professor at Cardiff University.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025
James Watson, the geneticist who discovered DNA’s double-helix structure, died Nov. 6 at 97, his late-life goal within reach.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 16, 2025
McKusick was a renowned geneticist who’d founded the world’s first human genetics department at Hopkins, where he maintained a catalog of hundreds of genes, including several he’d discovered himself in Amish populations.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
But the new study from geneticists at the University of Pennsylvania suggests the phenomenon has more social origins, and were actually the result of "long-standing mating preferences."
From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026
When the Romans left, Anglo-Saxon place names replaced Celtic ones, but geneticists estimate that in the parts of England closest to Germany, only about 10% of the population were Anglo-Saxon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
"Genetic researchers, companies and geneticists often operate in silos," McNally said.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 17, 2025
The full Promethean power of their achievement would slowly emerge over decades of research by fellow geneticists.
From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2025
That was not to say that the geneticists themselves provided any intellectual help.
From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson
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.
