Meanings
- uncountablesystematicsAn approach to biological systematics in which organisms are grouped based upon synapomorphies (shared derived characteristics) only, and not upon symplesiomorphies (shared ancestral characteristics); a method of classifying organisms based on their evolutionary relationships instead of superficial characteristics.
Here we suggest emphasis on the techniques of cladistics (Eldredge and Cracraft 1980; Wiley 1981; Coddington 1988) because they provide a clear means of organizing phylogenetic information in branching diagrams.
1991, Warren W. Burggren, William E. Bemis, “Physiological Evolution: Paradigms and Pitfalls”, in Matthew H. Nitecki, Doris V. Nitecki, editors, Evolutionary Innovations, page 2102 more examples
The construction of branching patterns to map evolutionary change is called cladistics, and the devising of higher classifications (genus and up) to conform with the results of cladistics is called phylogenetic systematics.[…]Cladistics does allow us to judge which species are most likely to share a common ancestor, validating their placement in the same genus or family or higher taxon.
1992, Edward O. Wilson, The Diversity of Life, page 1532001, Clare Bates Congdon, Gaphyl: A Genetic Algorithms Approach to Cladistics, Luc de Raedt, Arno Siebes (editors), Principles of Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery: 5th European Conference PKDD 2001, Volume 5, Springer, LNAI 2168, page 67, This research investigates the use of genetic algorithms to solve problems from cladistics — a technique used by biologists to hypothesize the relationships between organisms.
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna taxonomic system of classifying species based on the branching patterns of cladograms that are built to infer phylogenetic relations
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Ancient Greekκλάδος“branch”
- Englishcladistics
From clade + -istic, from Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos, “branch”).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan cladística
- cladísticaTranslations
Chinese Mandarin 支序分類學 /支序分类学
- 支序分類學 /支序分类学 (zhīxùfēnlèixué)Translations
French cladistique
- cladistiqueTranslations
German Kladistik
- KladistikTranslations
Greek κλαδιστική
- κλαδιστική (kladistikí)Translations
Korean 분지학
- 분지학 (bunjihak)Translations
Cite this entry
cladistics. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cladistics
“cladistics.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cladistics. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cladistics,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cladistics.
Source: cladistics on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.