biodiversity
noun
Did you know?
Biodiversity may become the rallying call for the next decade, wrote David Wake in the journal Science in 1989. Indeed, biodiversity is a word you're likely to encounter in writing about ecology and the environment today. But when Wake used it, "biodiversity" was still a relatively new addition to the English language, having first appeared in writing in the mid-1980s. Of course, the roots of biodiversity are much older. It evolved from a commingling of the descendants of the Greek noun bios, which means "mode of life," and the Latin verb divertere, which means "to turn aside" or "to go different ways."
Examples of biodiversity in a Sentence
Roger Sands, Forbes.com, 6 June 2026
Applicants may interpret topics such as climate justice, corporate greenwashing, Indigenous rights, material innovation, wildlife and biodiversity, waste and pollution, grassroots activism, recycling and circularity, and the physical and mental impacts of the climate crisis.
—Vogue, 6 June 2026
Similar projects in states including Utah and Washington have significantly reduced wildlife-vehicle collisions and encouraged biodiversity.
—Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 4 June 2026
The development is planned within a nature reserve and one of Albania’s most valuable biodiversity areas, a key stopover for migratory birds along the Adriatic coast.
—ABC News, 3 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for biodiversity
Cite this Entry
“Biodiversity.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biodiversity. Accessed 9 Jun. 2026.
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biodiversity
noun
