Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Originating internally.
  • adjective Originating or produced within an organism, tissue, or cell.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In bot.: Of or pertaining to the class of endogens; growing or proceeding from within: as, endogenous trees or plants; endogenous growth.
  • Originating within; internal; specifically, formed within another body, as spores within a sporangium.
  • In anat.: Same as autogenous.
  • Inclosed in a common cavity of the matrix, as cartilage-cells.
  • In geology, formed within a mass of rock or even within the earth itself: especially employed to describe the effects, in contact-metamorphism, produced in the intrusive rock itself, as distinguished from those in the walls.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Bot.) Increasing by internal growth and elongation at the summit, instead of externally, and having no distinction of pith, wood, and bark, as the rattan, the palm, the cornstalk.
  • adjective (Biol.) Originating from within; increasing by internal growth.
  • adjective (Biol.) a method of cell formation, seen in cells having a cell wall. The nucleus and protoplasm divide into two distinct masses; these in turn become divided and subdivided, each division becoming a new cell, until finally the original cell wall is ruptured and the new cells are liberated (see Segmentation, and Illust. of Cell Division, under Division). This mode of growth is characteristic of many forms of cells, both animal and vegetable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective produced, originating or growing from within
  • adjective of a disease, caused by factors within the body

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or resembling an endogen
  • adjective derived or originating internally

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

endo- + -genous

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Examples

  • And as I said, thank goodness it was time-limited, but it made me realize that there are people who are suffering with what we call endogenous depression.

    PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness is Corrupting Medicine 2001

  • Note: for more info on these chunks of viruses in DNA, google the phrase endogenous retroviruses.

    Quote of the day | RELIGION Blog | dallasnews.com 2009

  • If the seller's position is large relative to the market, this is called endogenous liquidity risk a feature of the seller.

    unknown title 2011

  • If the seller's position is large relative to the market, this is called endogenous liquidity risk a feature of the seller.

    unknown title 2011

  • Law, rather than being determined or imposed apart from or outside of the factors one is studying, is often "endogenous" -- meaning loosely that law is often both cause and effect.

    Business, Law, Economics & Society 2003

  • Law, rather than being determined or imposed apart from or outside of the factors one is studying, is often "endogenous" -- meaning loosely that law is often both cause and effect.

    Business, Law, Economics & Society 2003

  • This so-called endogenous depression was a crippling type of psychosis believed to be caused by a genetic abnormality.

    Crazy Like Us Ethan Watters 2010

  • How this happens is the subject of a branch of economics called endogenous growth theory.

    The Nature of Technology W. Brain Arthur 2009

  • It's called the endogenous growth theory, designed to give the appearance of prosperity in the short term to enable Brown to get into No. 10, but an economy fuelled by record levels of debt, and public spending is unsustainable and will burst before very much longer.

    It's All Very Taxing... 2007

  • The other class is called endogenous, and increases by layers applied to the inside; and when the hollow there is full, the growth is stopped — the tree must die.

    Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004

Comments

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  • ....and it's more extrovert twin "exogenous".

    January 7, 2007

  • WeirdNET has mastered adjectival derivation.

    June 2, 2008