nonphyletic
|non-phy-let-ic|
🇺🇸
/ˌnɑn.faɪˈlɛtɪk/
🇬🇧
/ˌnɒn.faɪˈlɛt.ɪk/
not forming a lineage
Etymology
'nonphyletic' originates from Modern English, specifically the prefix 'non-' (from Latin 'non', meaning 'not') combined with 'phyletic' which ultimately derives from Greek 'phylē' (φύλη) meaning 'tribe' or 'race' via New Latin/technical formation 'phyletic'.
'nonphyletic' developed in scientific usage by attaching the negative prefix 'non-' to 'phyletic' (itself formed from Greek roots and New Latin usage). The hyphenated form 'non-phyletic' appears in 20th-century biological literature and later crystallized as the concatenated modern form 'nonphyletic'.
Initially built simply to mean 'not belonging to a phyle/tribe' from classical roots, in modern biological contexts it evolved to mean 'not forming a single evolutionary lineage (not a clade)'.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
not phyletic; not forming a phyletic group or single evolutionary lineage — used in phylogenetics to indicate that a taxon does not constitute a clade defined by common ancestry.
The species cluster was judged nonphyletic because its members fell into several distinct clades in the molecular tree.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2025/09/24 12:21