survival of the fittest

American  

noun

1. (not in technical use) natural selection.

2. a 19th-century concept of human society, inspired by the principle of natural selection, postulating that those who are eliminated in the struggle for existence are the unfit.

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survival of the fittest British  

noun

1. a popular term for natural selection

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survival of the fittest Idioms  

1. Those best adapted to particular conditions will succeed in the long run, as in They've had to close a dozen of their stores, but the ones in the western part of the state are doing well—it's the survival of the fittest. This phrase was invented by Herbert Spencer in Principles of Biology (1864) to describe Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection of living species. By the early 1900s it was being transferred to other areas.

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Etymology

Origin of survival of the fittest

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

New CEO Greg Abel might favor survival of the fittest.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 22, 2026

We’re in a game of survival of the fittest, where surviving itself feels akin to luxuriating in what should be hostile territory, mastering an environment we have come together to ravage.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 24, 2024

The researchers hypothesized that the limited shapes observed in nature reflected "survival of the fittest," and that the many possible shapes not observed in real fungi were, for some reason, weaker evolutionary rejects.

From Science Daily • Mar. 25, 2024

Darwin didn't rule out natural selection, his original term for "survival of the fittest."

From Salon • Jul. 11, 2023

“Um, with polar bears, it’s not survival of the fittest but survival of the fattest,” Owen told him.

From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz