interbreed
Americanverb (used with object)
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interbreeds,
present (3rd person singular)
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interbred,
past participle, past
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interbreeding
present participle
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to crossbreed (a plant or animal).
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to cause to breed together.
verb (used without object)
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interbreeds,
present (3rd person singular)
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interbred,
past participle, past
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interbreeding
present participle
-
to crossbreed.
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to breed or mate with a closely related individual, as in a small, closed population.
verb
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(intr) to breed within a single family or strain so as to produce particular characteristics in the offspring
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another term for crossbreed
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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interbreedsimple
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interbreedssimple
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have interbredperfect
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has interbredperfect
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am interbreedingprogressive
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are interbreedingprogressive
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is interbreedingprogressive
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have been interbreedingperfect progressive
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has been interbreedingperfect progressive
Past
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interbredsimple
-
had interbredperfect
-
was interbreedingprogressive
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were interbreedingprogressive
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had been interbreedingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of interbreed
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:
Even though different species can still interbreed, these inversions limit how much their DNA mixes, helping maintain distinct traits.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 1, 2026
The two owls are closely related; they are similar in appearance and the birds can even interbreed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2025
These two broods may actually overlap — but probably not interbreed — in a small area near central Illinois, entomologists said.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 1, 2024
"These two species are interfertile, meaning that they can interbreed and produce viable offspring," the Center stated on its website.
From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2023
But if wild populations with variations in genotype keep interbreeding, Dobzhansky knew, a new species would never be formed: a species, after all, is fundamentally defined by its inability to interbreed with another.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Gavæus frontalis interbreeds freely with domesticated cattle of all kinds.
From Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon by Sterndale, Robert Armitage
Some naturalists would separate them from the other cats, but the connection is supplied by the last species which, though possessing certain features of the lynx, yet interbreeds with the true cats.
From Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon by Sterndale, Robert Armitage
It interbreeds in Siberia with C. caniceps, an East Siberian form.
From The History of the European Fauna by Scharff, Robert Francis
Modern humans who left Africa roughly 50,000 years ago encountered Neanderthals and Denisovans in Eurasia and interbred with both groups.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
In 2010 scientists reconstructed the Neanderthal genome -- blockbuster research that allowed for analysis making clear that the species interbred.
From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026
Those first modern humans that had interbred with Neanderthals and lived alongside them died out completely in Europe 40,000 years ago - but not before their offspring had spread further out into the world.
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2024
This means Thorin's genome was full of the variants one usually sees with recent inbreeding, a striking feature given other modern humans lived nearby with whom Thorin's Neanderthal community could have interbred.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2024
The self-fertilised plants, whether originally descended from one or two mother-plants, were thus in each generation as closely interbred as was possible; and I could not have improved on my plan.
From Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom by Darwin, Charles
The discovery reinforces a growing view of human evolution as a long history of encounters and interbreeding among many related hominin populations.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
Yet the genomes of living people also contained signs of much older episodes of interbreeding.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
But over hundreds of millennia, human migrations resulted in interbreeding, researchers say.
From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026
Scotland's nature agency NatureScot refers to these animals as feral pigs, and said they include hybrids - a mix of boar and domestic pigs following interbreeding.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2025
Geographic isolation might have solved some of the “grey finch” problem—by restricting interbreeding between particular variants.
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.
