Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A group of organisms, such as a species, whose members share homologous features derived from a common ancestor.
Wiktionary
- n. biology, systematics A group of animals or other organisms derived from a common ancestor species.
- n. genetics A higher level grouping of a genetic haplogroup.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a group of biological taxa or species that share features inherited from a common ancestor
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek κλάδος ("shoot, branch"). (Wiktionary)
- From Greek klados, branch. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“By definition, a clade is a group composed of a single ancestor and all its descendants.”
“In cladistics, the clade is a hypothetical construct based on experimental data.”
“Understanding Evolution: A clade is a grouping that includes a common ancestor and all the descendents (living and extinct) of that ancestor … Clades are nested within one another — they form a nested hierarchy.”
“A clade is an ancestor species and all of its descendants”
“If we look at the definition of clade - A clade is a group, consisting of a single organism and all of its descendants. - my premise is correct as aves are a descendent of reptiles - that is if we go by the cladogram …”
“A clade is a group, consisting of a single organism and all of its descendants.”
“A clade is a parent and * all* of its descendents.”
“A clade is a common ancestor and all its descendents.”
“Understanding Evolution: A clade is a grouping that includes a common ancestor and all the descendents (living and extinct) of that ancestor … Clades are nested within one another — they form a nested hierarchy. olegt: I am afraid this clarification won't help because Joe still doesn't understand what a clade is.”
“Zachriel: The set {clade} is defined as the ancestor and all its descendents.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘clade’.
-
Groups
Words synonymous with 'group.'
congregation, crowd, gaggle, flock, clique, bunch, cluster, herd, mass, mob, multitude, organization and 118 more...
-
clado-, clad-
of or relating to a branch or branching
cladogram, cladistics, cladophyll, cladode, cladocera, cladoptosis, cladonia, clade, cladoceran, cladrastis, cladose
-
work these into conversation
Challenge!
legerdemain, polysemic, rupestrian, callipygian, oscitancy, numen, lucubration, asperity, amalgam, apposite, wastrel, eleemosynary and 208 more...
-
Unusual words for Words With Friends
A list of words that WWF recognizes as valid - most are unusual words; some are simply high-scoring.
botel, slipe, jeu, chub, chubs, cote, mure, tittle, dev, loo, hoke, helo and 357 more...
-
Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
-
Favorite Five-Letter Words
Just what it sounds like. My favorites. Five letters.
ennui, barfy, samba, schwa, beefy, chunk, queef, spasm, skulk, bowel, elbow, fruit and 235 more...
-
Words of Dinosaurology
This quickly got bigger and weirder than originally intended, so now it's housing terms that relate to the study of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. See also Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Ichthy...
zygopophyses, ziphodont, plesiomorphic, cleidoic, endothermy, ectothermy, viviparous, vertebrae, cervical, dorsal, sacral, caudal and 628 more...
-
looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
-
miscellanea
antimacassar, snootful, sessile, glagolitic, marrowsky, farrago, keel, calumny, rheum, talisman, tally, awry and 508 more...
-
rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3251 more...
-
Evolution
Words related to evolution
phyletic, polyphyly, paraphyly, monophyly, phenetics, phenetic, clade, ontogeny, phylogeny, teleology, parapatric
-
ramages
names of trees and bushes and other asundry items that name branching
juniper, pinon, tamarind, ponderosa pine, douglas fir, locust, sycamore, cottonwood, mountain mahogany, blue spruce, cedar, aspen and 76 more...
-
brundlefly's Words
shrike, afghan, spelunking, scuttle, boatswain, eschatological, merkin, sassafras, etruscan, doppelganger, trench, cromulent and 43 more...
-
Jargon
litotes, jargon, cannula, onomatopoeic, plasma, gadolinium, seaborgium, astatine, iridium, spectroscopy, spectrometry, polonium and 26 more...
-
lingo:science
Tweets
Looking for tweets for clade.

mollusque One definition is based on the method of analysis that produces the branching diagram (tree), the other is based on the way the tree is converted into a classification. The cladistic method identifies characters that are shared by groups (features inherited from a common ancestor), but some of those characters might be lost in some members of the group. The cladistic method also says that given a particular tree topology, the only groups that should be recognized are those that can be removed from the tree with a single cut (which gives an ancestor and all its descendants, i.e., a monophyletic group). Nov 21, 2011
qroqqa The problem is that two 'definitions' found on the Internet are mutually inconsistent. That's got nothing to do with what a clade is. Clades are defined by descent; there's no actual need for any two members of a clade to share any particular inheritance. A clade is a species together with all its descendants. Nov 21, 2011
hernesheir Perhaps the terms "derived from" and "inherited from" are problematical. The former, "derived from" suggests the bugbear (to some) evolution. The latter, "inherited from" seems less problematical because most people accept the principle(s) of inheritance. I don't see much contradiction. Nov 20, 2011
Mats Envall The problem with the concept "clade" is thqt groups of "animals or other organisms derived from a common ancestor species" (the first definition above) are not consistent with groups of"animals that share features inherited from a common ancestor" (the third definition above). The problem is thus that the concept "clade" is internally inconsistent, that is, contradictory. Such things simply can't be found (non-contradictory). Nov 19, 2011