geneticist
Americannoun
noun
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.
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
The geneticist Barbara McClintock discovered genetic elements that can move around within the genome—so-called jumping genes; she would win the Nobel Prize in 1983.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
