Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Retention of juvenile characteristics in the adults of a species, as among certain amphibians.
- n. The attainment of sexual maturity by an organism still in its larval stage.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In biology: The reversion of a phylum to a modified embryonic condition.
- n. The retention by an organism of larval or juvenile characters beyond the time characteristic of other members of the group to which it belongs. This may be partial, as in the case of some toads and frogs, whose young pass the winter in the tadpole condition, or total, as in some salamanders that retain their external gills when adult. Also neotenia.
Wiktionary
- n. biology The retention of juvenile characteristics in the adult.
- n. biology The sexual maturity of an organism still in its larval stage.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an evolutionary trend to be born earlier so that development is cut off at an earlier stage and juvenile characteristics are retained in adults of the species
Etymologies
- From German Neotenie, in turn from Ancient Greek νέος (neos, "young") and τείνειν (teinein, "tend to"). (Wiktionary)
- New Latin neotenia : neo- + Greek teinein, ten-, to extend; see tenesmus. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Humans, especially females, are likewise evolutionarily wired to respond in a nurturing way to faces that have a quality of neoteny, which is to say, the retention of infantile characteristics: large head, wide and prominent eyes, slightly helpless and winsome.”
“It seems highly plausible that, as Australopithecus evolved through various intermediates to Homo sapiens, shortening the muzzle all along the way, it did so by the obvious route of retaining juvenile characteristics into adulthood the process called neoteny, mentioned in Chapter 2.”
“What they found was quite consistent with the notion of neoteny, not only for body shape but for dog language.”
“The most important of these involves neoteny, which is the technical term describing the fact that certain juvenile features and behaviors are retained in the adult.”
“Dinosaurs, like birds and many mammals, retain neoteny, that is, they retain their juvenile characteristics for a long period of growth," Horner said, "which is a strong indicator that they were very social animals, grouping in flocks or herds with long periods of parental care.”
“Attributing homosexuality to any single factor, whether "neoteny" or an absent father gives the impression that there is something abnormal, something that requires treatment.”
“The neoteny issue is a pervasive cultural problem, but it applies to men and women alike in all aspects of our culture.”
“She even raised (and educated me in) the biology concept of neoteny, whereby new species begin to resemble the embryos of the animals from whence they evolved -- chihuahuas, for example, look like fetal wolves.”
“For me, he's fascinating as one of those ironic antiheroes, subverting the champion in his neoteny/effeteness, in his innocence -- everyboy rather than everyman.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘neoteny’.
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Another 250 Spelling Words
Another range of words from the intermediate to the advanced speller's level.
cherimoya, parthenogenesis, sommelier, bupkis, kichel, voulge, indivisibility, retiarius, sewellel, vihuela, ossature, jalfrezi and 238 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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May 2010 (Wedding Month!!)
Just the words I meet this month, starting with cecum.
cecum, compersion, antilogy, fantods, dord, flam, ipsedixitism, quartine, glycation, neoteny, desiccation, hypovolemia and 17 more...
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Unsorted
poliorcetikon, lethologica, aegrotat, haha, logolepsy, logomisia, anfractuosity, nudiustertian, tontine, herostrat, acroamatic, bibliotaph and 132 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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bertilak's Words
antidisestablishm..., feldercarb, wainscoting, eleemosynary, oxymoron, fuliginous, libration, lammergeier, saxifrage, ichor, lambent, smaragdine and 414 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
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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...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3248 more...
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Hana's Vocab
ipseism, jape, raphe, mullions and tran..., Olbers' Paradox, Euclidian torus, relativity of sim..., Cerenkov radiation, tachyon, superluminal, hapax legomenon, damascene and 314 more...
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she blinded me with science
good heavens miss yakamoto you're beautiful
schwarzschild radius, event horizon, biophilia, buckyballs, superorganism, eusocial, spandrel, undular, exaptation, hydroponics, neoteny, thought experiment and 10 more...
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moominword's list
an ontography
saltatory, chawbacon, omnifarious, confused, salvific, capitulate, attrition, gaffe, bailiwick, salubrious, spontaneous, enfeoff and 45 more...
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My Favorites By Definition
schadenfreude, nervio, nikhedonia, madefy, mancinism, nake, kumatage, ecdemolagnia, neoteny, lexiphanicism, anhedonia, noyade and 5 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for neoteny.
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