geneticist
Americannoun
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 grew out of a collaboration supported by the Knight Initiative between the Stanford labs of geneticist Anne Brunet and bioengineer Karl Deisseroth, the study's senior authors.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 26, 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
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
When I was a college undergraduate in the early 1950’s, I was fortunate enough to work in the laboratory of H. J. Muller, a great geneticist and the man who discovered that radiation produces mutations.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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
Davies also explained how research included consulting geneticists and revisiting the history of the Sea Devils and how Homo Aqua "could have branched off from mankind millions of years ago".
From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2025
The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, a professional organization for geneticists and genetic counselors, concluded last year that polygenic screening offers no proven clinical benefit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2025
Zoo geneticists will work with the eight new iguanas to determine whether they were poached directly from the wild or bred illegally, and which island they may have originally come from.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 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.
