GENUS

Genus

In biology, a genus is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms. The composition of a genus is determined by a taxonomist. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. In the hierarchy of the binomial classification system, genus comes above species and below family. As a human construct for classifying organisms, there is not a fixed methodology for defining genera.

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genus

Noun

  1. a rank in the classification of organisms, below family and above species; a taxon at that rank
    All magnolias belong to the genus Magnolia.
    Other species of the genus Bos are often called cattle or wild cattle.
    There are only two genera and species of seadragons.
  2. A group with common attributes
  3. A number measuring some aspect of the complexity of any of various manifolds or graphs
  4. Within a definition, a broader category of the defined concept.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: genus
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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