Haeckel

American  

[hek-uhl] / ˈhɛk əl /

noun

1. Ernst Heinrich 1834–1919, German biologist and philosopher of evolution.

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Haeckel British  

/ hɛˈkiːlɪən, ˈhɛkəl /

noun

1. Ernst Heinrich (ɛrnst ˈhainrɪç). 1834–1919, German biologist and philosopher. He formulated the recapitulation theory of evolution and was an exponent of the philosophy of materialistic monism

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Haeckel Scientific  

/ hĕk′əl /

1. German naturalist who was the first to attempt a genealogical tree of all animals. He was also one of the first scientists to publicly support Darwin's theory of evolution. His own ideas about evolution attracted popular attention, and though they were later disproved, they helped to stimulate biological research.

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Other Word Forms

• Haeckelian adjective
• Haeckelism noun

Example Sentences

In 1881, the biologist Ernst Haeckel visited Sri Lanka and described the behavior: Not only did they crawl on the ground, he wrote, but they could also “spring to reach their victim.”

From New York Times • Jun. 20, 2024

Ernst Haeckel, the famous naturalist and proponent of Darwinism, on his visit to Sri Lanka said the flora of the land reminded him of fossils from earlier geological ages.

From Salon • Apr. 10, 2021

Biologist Thomas Huxley linked this murky sludge to the “little floating globules of slime,” or “organisms without organs,” that German scientist Ernst Haeckel had first observed, several years before, in the French Riviera.

From Slate • Jul. 18, 2016

Jacques Loeb is dead�the greatest exponent Since Haeckel of what he called "the mechanistic conception of life."

From Time Magazine Archive

The position of Haeckel and Huxley is all the more significant because Frederic Harrison knows of "no single thinker in Europe who has come forward to support this religion of an unknown cause."

From Liberty In The Nineteenth Century by Holland, Frederic May