Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The uncapitalized Latin adjective or noun that follows a capitalized genus name in binomial nomenclature and serves to distinguish a species from others in the same genus, as saccharum in Acer saccharum (sugar maple).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun taxonomy, botany The second (uncapitalized) word in the
scientific name of aspecies , following the name of thegenus .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word specific epithet.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.