What is "genus"

Genus \Ge"nus\ (j[=e]"n[u^]s), n.; pl. Genera. [L., birth, race, kind, sort; akin to Gr. ?. See Gender, and cf. Benign.]

1. (Logic) A class of objects divided into several subordinate species; a class more extensive than a species; a precisely defined and exactly divided class; one of the five predicable conceptions, or sorts of terms.

2. (Biol.) An assemblage of species, having so many fundamental points of structure in common, that in the judgment of competent scientists, they may receive a common substantive name. A genus is not necessarily the lowest definable group of species, for it may often be divided into several subgenera. In proportion as its definition is exact, it is natural genus; if its definition can not be made clear, it is more or less an artificial genus.

   Note: Thus in the animal kingdom the lion, leopard, tiger, cat, and panther are species of the Cat kind or genus, while in the vegetable kingdom all the species of oak form a single genus. Some genera are represented by a multitude of species, as Solanum (Nightshade) and Carex (Sedge), others by few, and some by only one known species.

   Subaltern genus (Logic), a genus which may be a species of a higher genus, as the genus denoted by quadruped, which is also a species of mammal.

   Summum genus [L.] (Logic), the highest genus; a genus which can not be classed as a species, as being.

(plural genera), 1550s as a term of logic, "kind or class of things" (biological sense dates from c.1600), from Latin genus (genitive generis) "race, stock, kind; family, birth, descent, origin," cognate with Greek genos "race, kind," and gonos "birth, offspring, stock," from PIE root *gene- "produce, give birth, beget," with derivatives referring to family and tribal groups (cognates: Sanskrit janati "begets, bears," janah "race," janman- "birth, origin," jatah "born;" Avestan zizanenti "they bear;" Greek gignesthai "to become, happen;" Latin gignere "to beget," gnasci "to be born," genius "procreative divinity, inborn tutelary spirit, innate quality," ingenium "inborn character," germen "shoot, bud, embryo, germ;" Lithuanian gentis "kinsmen;" Gothic kuni "race;" Old English cennan "beget, create;" Old High German kind "child;" Old Irish ro-genar "I was born;" Welsh geni "to be born;" Armenian chanim "I bear, I am born").

n. 1 (context biology taxonomy English) a rank in the classification of organisms, below family and above species; a taxon at that rank 2 A group with common attributes. 3 (context topology English) A number measuring some aspect of the complexity of any of various manifolds or graphs 4 (context semantics English) Within a definition, a broader category of the defined concept.

1. n. a general kind of something; "ignore the genus communism"

2. (biology) taxonomic group containing one or more species

3. [also: genera (pl)]

A genus (, genera) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms in biology. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus.

The composition of a genus is determined by a taxonomist. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. There are some general practices used, however, including the idea that a newly defined genus should fulfill these three criteria to be descriptively useful:

1. monophyly – all descendants of an ancestral taxon are grouped together (i.e. phylogenetic analysis should clearly demonstrate both monophyly and validity as a separate lineage ).
2. reasonable compactness – a genus should not be expanded needlessly; and
3. distinctness – with respect to evolutionarily relevant criteria, i.e. ecology, morphology, or biogeography; note that DNA sequences are a consequence rather than a condition of diverging evolutionary lineages except in cases where they directly inhibit gene flow (e.g. postzygotic barriers).

Moreover, genera should be composed of phylogenetic units of the same kind as other (analogous) genera.

In mathematics, genus (plural genera) has a few different, but closely related, meanings:

Genus (Gr.: γένος [genos], pl. γένη [genē], lat. genus, pl. genera "type, kind") is a term used in the Ancient Greek and Roman theory of music to describe certain classes of intonations of the two movable notes within a tetrachord.

Aristoxenus (in his fragmentary treatise on rhythm) names 'genera' some patterns of rhythm. The tetrachordal concept is also found in the modal theory of Byzantine music and relates to the jins of Arabic music.

Genus is a furry erotic comic book originally published by Antarctic Press and continued by Radio Comix under its "Sin Factory" imprint. Issues contain sexually explicit stories and pin-up illustrations by various artists, featuring anthropomorphic animals (no human characters are included), and are labeled for sale to adults only. The series began in June 1993, with 94 issues published as of April 2012. Originally published in stapled format, recent issues are square bound with higher page counts. Diamond Comic Distributors' catalog describes it as "The longest-running erotic comic anthology".

Genus, from the Latin genus, generis "birth, race, stock, kind" may refer to:

• In Linnaean taxonomy, genus is the rank between family and species.
• Genus (journal), a journal of population genetics
• Genus (mathematics), a classifying property of a mathematical object
  • Genus of a multiplicative sequence
  • Geometric genus
  • In graph embedding, the genus of the graph is the genus of the surface in which it can be embedded
  • In the theory of numerical semigroups, the genus of a numerical semigroup is the cardinality of the set of gaps in the numerical semigroup
• grammatical gender
• Genus (music), a concept in ancient Greek music theory
• Genus (philosophy)
• Genus (linguistics)

in popular culture:

• Genus (comic book), a furry erotic comic book
• In Alienators: Evolution Continues, the Genus are monstrous alien organisms that have a high speed evolution

in business:

• Genus plc, a British biotechnology company
• Genus Limited, video and photographic accessories company

in sports:

• Sport Club Genus de Porto Velho, a Brazilian football (soccer) club

In Scholastic logic a Genus is one of the Predicables. Genus is that part of a definition which is also predicable of other things different from the definiendum. A triangle is a rectilineal figure; i.e. in fixing the genus of a thing, we subsume it under a higher universal, of which it is a species.

In linguistics, a genus is a group of phylogenetically related languages inside a linguistic family, in particular a genus is a group languages which can be recognized as related languages without using complex methods of historical linguistics. The notion of genus was proposed by M. Dryer., and is used commonly in some academic projects such as: WALS. According to WALS most families can be subdivided in a certain number of genus, so the notion is similar to the term subfamily.