genetics

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The branch of biology that deals with the transmission and variation of inherited characteristics, in particular chromosomes and DNA.

   If we want to raise mangels that will not run to seed, or to breed a cow that will give more milk in less time, or milk with more butter and less water, we can turn to Genetics with every hope that something can be done in these laudable directions.

2. 2
   noun

   The genetic makeup of a specific individual or species.

   As a result of your father’s, mother’s, and their parents genetics, you are born with a genetic structure that is dealt to you at conception. […] Our ancestry determines our genetics.

3. 3
   noun

   the branch of biology that studies heredity and variation in organisms

Etymology

From Ancient Greek γένεσις (génesis, “origin”). Coined by English biologist William Bateson in 1905 in a letter to zoologist Adam Sedgwick, and first used publicly by Bateson at a lecture to the International Conference on Plant Hybridization in 1906.