holophyletic

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adjective

Forming a clade; monophyletic.

Scrabble 25
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Meanings

adjectiveholophyletic (not comparable)
  1. not comparablebiologyForming a clade; monophyletic.

    The bees have long appeared to constitute a holophyletic unit.

    2000, Charles Duncan Michener, The Bees of the World - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 55
    2 more examples

    Cladistics aims to identify holophyletic groups (clades) comprising all the descendants of a common ancestor.

    2008, Brian McGowran, Kenneth George Denbigh, Biostratigraphy: Microfossils and Geological Time, →ISBN, page 119

    McCafferty and Edmunds (1979) divided all mayflies into Pannota and Schistonota, regarding Pannota to be holophyletic, and Schistonota to be paraphyletic.

    2013, Nikita Kluge, The Phylogenetic System of Ephemeroptera, →ISBN, page 1

Origin

From holo- + phyletic.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

holophyletic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/holophyletic

MLA

“holophyletic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/holophyletic. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “holophyletic,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/holophyletic.

Source: holophyletic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.