exaptation
The use of a biological structure or function for a purpose other than that for which…The use of a biological structure or function for a purpose other than that for which it initially evolved.
Meaning
2 senses(countable, uncountable)The use of a biological structure or function for a purpose other than that for which it initially evolved.
Birds initially developed wings and feathers as a means of heat regulation. The use of wings for flight is an example of exaptation.
(broadly, countable, uncountable)The promotion of meaningless or redundant material so that it does new grammatical (morphosyntactic or phonological) or semantic work.
Translations
2 languagesForms
plural: exaptations| Singular | exaptation |
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regular
Word family
2 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.