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Jul 4, 2012
This week's theme
Words made with combining forms

This week's words
monology
logomachy
phylogeny
scotophobia
epigraphy

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

phylogeny

PRONUNCIATION:
(fy-LOJ-uh-nee)

MEANING:
noun: The evolutionary development of a species, a group of organisms, or a particular feature of an organism.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek phylo- (race, class) + -geny (origin). Phylogeny is very different from philogyny. Earliest documented use: 1869.

USAGE:
"Recognize your phylogeny. You are a Great Ape. We're more related to gorillas than most warblers are to each other."
Audrey Schulman; Three Weeks in December; Europa; 2012.

See more usage examples of phylogeny in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
In the face of suffering, one has no right to turn away, not to see. -Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1928)

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