Darwinism

noun

Dar·​win·​ism ˈdär-wə-ˌni-zəm 

1

: a theory of the origin and perpetuation of new species of animals and plants that offspring of a given organism vary, that natural selection favors the survival of some of these variations over others, that new species have arisen and may continue to arise by these processes, and that widely divergent groups of plants and animals have arisen from the same ancestors compare evolution sense 1, neo-darwinism

2

: a theory that inherent dynamic forces allow only the fittest persons or organizations to prosper in a competitive environment or situation

economic Darwinism

compare social darwinism

Darwinist

ˈdär-wə-nist 

noun or adjective

Examples of Darwinism in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

By nature of Darwinism, insects resistant to certain controls often breed and multiply in a garden, passing on that resistance as a genetic trait. — Anthony Reardon, Kansas City Star, 20 June 2026

Ultimately, leaders in Christianity felt Darwinism reduced human life to something purely mechanical and soulless, and therefore Godless. — Rachel Brodsky, Rolling Stone, 20 June 2026

Operational Darwinism is a discipline of deliberate design and relentless execution. — Koray Köse, Forbes.com, 19 May 2026

Church, for all his scientific curiosity, was not moved to convert Darwinism into pictorial rhetoric. — Sebastian Smee, New Yorker, 4 May 2026

Plus, ‘digital Darwinism,’ a ‘coffee test’ for robots, touchscreen breathalyzers and more. — Emma Court, Bloomberg, 26 Apr. 2026

Finish last in the Social Darwinism of a European football league, and you’re banished to a lower division of the game. — Andrés Martinez, Fortune, 2 Apr. 2026

But decoherence and quantum Darwinism select only one of them as an element of our observable reality, without any need to assign all the others a classical reality in some other world. — Quanta Magazine, 13 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing Darwinism

• anti-Darwinism
• neo-Darwinism
• social Darwinism

Rhymes for Darwinism

• autism
• fascism
• racism
• sikhism
• sophism
• statism
• sufism
• thomism
• tourism
• tropism
• abolitionism
• aldosteronism

Kids Definition

Darwinism

noun

Dar·​win·​ism ˈdär-wə-ˌniz-əm 

: a theory explaining the origin and continued existence of new kinds of animals and plants by means of natural selection acting on chance variations

Medical Definition

Darwinism

noun

Dar·​win·​ism ˈdär-wə-ˌniz-əm 

: a theory of the origin and perpetuation of new species of animals and plants that offspring of a given organism vary, that natural selection favors the survival of some of these variations over others, that new species have arisen and may continue to arise by these processes, and that widely divergent groups of plants and animals have arisen from the same ancestors

broadly : a theory of biological evolution

Darwinist

-wə-nəst 

noun or adjective