monotypic
Americanadjective
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having only one type.
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of the nature of a monotype.
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Biology. having only one representative, as a genus with a single species.
adjective
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(of a genus or species) consisting of only one type of animal or plant
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of or relating to a monotype
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Having a single form or member, especially containing no more than one taxonomic category of the next lower rank. A monotypic genus contains a single species, while a monotypic species consists of a single population that is not divided into subspecies.
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Compare polytypic
Etymology
Origin of monotypic
1875–80; mono- + type ( def. ) + -ic ( def. )
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.
When Hansen started at Ogden Bay WMA three years ago, he described driving down the management area dikes, completely socked in by a sea of monotypic green.
From Washington Times • Oct. 12, 2018
This relatively poorly known monotypic species occurs from southern Veracruz to the Amazon Basin.
From Noteworthy Records of Bats From Nicaragua, with a Checklist of the Chiropteran Fauna of the Country by Jones, J. Knox
The only endemic for which the geographic history cannot be adequately explained is the monotypic Pityriasis gymnocephala.
From Birds from North Borneo University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History, Volume 17, No. 8, pp. 377-433, October 27, 1966 by Thompson, Max C.
But that it is only a glimmering is proved by the immediately ensuing sentences, which apply this analogy of unconscious selection not to the case of monotypic, but to that of polytypic evolution.
From Darwin, and After Darwin (Vol 3 of 3) Post-Darwinian Questions: Isolation and Physiological Selection by Romanes, George John
This relationship suggests that the two kinds are neither subspecies of a single species, nor individual variants of a widespread, monotypic species, but probably are two different species.
From Noteworthy Mammals from Sinaloa, Mexico by Jones, J. Knox
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.
