taxonomist

American  

[taks-ah-nuhm-ist] / tæksˈɑ nəm ɪst /

noun

taxonomists plural

1. an expert or practitioner in taxonomy, especially in biology.

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Other Word Forms

• non-taxonomist
  noun

Explanation

A taxonomist is a biologist that groups organisms into categories. A plant taxonomist for example, might study the origins and relationships between different types of roses while an insect taxonomist might focus on the relationships between different types of beetles. A taxonomist is not to be confused with a taxidermist, a person who specializes in the stuffing and mounting of dead animals. It's true, both words share their origins in the Greek taxis meaning "arrangement." But in the case of a taxonomist, it's not dead animals that are being arranged, it's hierarchies of species.

Example Sentences

In 1758, the Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus described a single species of giraffe: Giraffa camelopardalis.

From New York Times • Feb. 19, 2024

“We cannot prioritize stability over social justice,” counters Marcos Raposo, an ornithologist and taxonomist at the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, author of another editorial.

From Science Magazine • Sep. 5, 2023

Of that creature, a British taxonomist named Oldfield Thomas wrote in 1888 that “no zoologist has dared to describe it.”

From Washington Post • Apr. 11, 2023

Ricardo Viñas, who in November was laid off from his Seattle-based job as an information taxonomist for Meta, also wants less of that uncertainty.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 5, 2023

Mendel, as we shall see, was an instinctual gardener—a breeder of plants, a counter of seeds, an isolator of traits; Darwin was a garden digger—a classifier of plants, an organizer of specimens, a taxonomist.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee