antitropical
|an-ti-trop-i-cal|
🇺🇸
/ˌæn.təˈtrɑ.pɪ.kəl/
🇬🇧
/ˌæn.tɪˈtrɒp.ɪ.kəl/
opposite/away from the tropics
Etymology
'antitropical' originates from the prefix 'anti-' (from Greek 'anti', meaning 'against' or 'opposite') combined with 'tropical' (from Late Latin 'tropicus'/'tropicus', from Greek 'tropikos'), where 'tropikos' related to 'tropē' meaning 'a turn' or 'change'.
'antitropical' is a modern English formation combining the prefix 'anti-' (Greek origin) with the adjective 'tropical' (via Late Latin 'tropicus' from Greek 'tropikos'). Over time the combining of 'anti-' + 'tropical' produced the technical biological term 'antitropical' used to describe specific biogeographic distributions.
Initially the components meant 'opposite' (anti-) and 'pertaining to the tropics' (tropical); together they came to mean 'occurring on opposite sides of the tropics or away from the tropics' in biological usage.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
describing a distribution pattern in which a species or population occurs in temperate regions of both the northern and southern hemispheres but is absent from tropical regions (i.e., separated by the tropics).
Several marine algae and fish have antitropical distributions, appearing in cool temperate waters north and south of the equator but not in equatorial seas.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2025/09/11 21:50