Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Biology A taxonomic category of related organisms ranking below a family and above a genus.
- noun Linguistics A division of languages below a family and above a branch.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In zoology, the first subdivision of a family, containing several genera or only one genus.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Biol.) One of the subdivisions, of more importance than genus, into which certain families are divided.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun taxonomy A
taxonomic category ranking between afamily and agenus ; formerly called atribe
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (biology) a taxonomic category below a family
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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On the origins of Hippopotamidae together with descriptions of two species, a new genus and a new subfamily from the Miocene of Kenya.
More on what I saw at the zoo Darren Naish 2006
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In the era immediately following World War II, the subfamily was a convenient startup arrangement for young couples newly married and as a residential arrangement for an elderly dependent parent in the home of a son or daughter.
The Population of the United States Douglas L. Anderton 1997
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Most cool season cereal, forage and turf grasses belong to the Pooideae subfamily, which is also the largest grass subfamily.
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This 'subfamily' is a critical area of family life all around the world, regardless of cultural influence.
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This month, IF Editor Cat Wayland talks about the "subfamily" of siblings in her newly launched IF mag blog.
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Most of the languages of this subfamily straddle the border between Chiapas and Guatemala.
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According to Ethnologue. com, the Chol belong to the Chol-Chontal subfamily of the Maya Linguistic Group.
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The dung beetle subfamily Scarabaeinae is a cosmopolitan group of insects that feed primarily on dung.
Archive 2009-01-01 2009
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Most of the languages of this subfamily straddle the border between Chiapas and Guatemala.
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According to Ethnologue. com, the Chol belong to the Chol-Chontal subfamily of the Maya Linguistic Group.
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