Meanings
- derogatoryhumorousraresometimesuncountableevolutionary theoryThe selection of certain genes caused by the actions of humans, especially the intentional intervention in the breeding of plants or animals in order to preserve selected genetic traits; eugenics, selective breeding or culling.
Is the startling variety of dogs, brassicas and the like, which our unnatural selection has generated, a sort of compensation, I wonder?
2000, John Postgate, Microbes and Man, →ISBN, page 3353 more examples
Rachel demonstrates that America's racism and its tolerance of lynching (not public health measures, as white supremacist and elitist eugenicists from Spencer to Wiggam had argued) have resulted in unnatural selection for both blacks and whites.
2005, Daylanne K. English, Unnatural Selections: Eugenics in American Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, →ISBNUnnatural selection generally acts at cross purposes to the long-term goal of sustainable harvest of wild populations and can reduce the frequency of phenotypes valued by humans. Harvest can affect sexual selection because it tends to remove individuals with particular characteristics, such as large size or elaborate weapons from those of the breeding pool.
2009, Francisco J. Ayala, John C. Avise, In the Light of Evolution: Volume III: Two Centuries of Darwin, →ISBNThere has often been talk of eugenics, of breeding humans in such a way as to improve their gene pool—a kind of unnatural selection or self-domestication.
2012, John Tyler Bonner, The Ideas of Biology, →ISBNSynonyms: artificial selection
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe selection of certain genes caused by the actions of humans, especially the intentional intervention in the breeding of plants or animals in order to preserve selected genetic traits; eugenics, selective breeding or culling.
Origin
Cite this entry
unnatural selection. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unnatural%20selection
“unnatural selection.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unnatural%20selection. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unnatural selection,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unnatural%20selection.
Source: unnatural selection on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.