anthropogenic

adjective an·thro·po·gen·ic \ -pə-ˈje-nik \

|Updated on: 23 Jul 2018

Definition of anthropogenic

: of, relating to, or resulting from the influence of human beings on nature

anthropogenic pollutants

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anthropogenically

play \-ni-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

Recent Examples of anthropogenic from the Web

Natural selection simply does not operate on the same timescale as industrialization, so to keep pace with anthropogenic change, wild animals have resorted to altering their behavior rather than their genes.

— katherine j. wu, Smithsonian, "How Humans Created the Ultimate Superpests," 9 July 2018
Where is his own secret science that refutes findings anthropogenic greenhouses gas are a major problem?

— scott waldman, Scientific American, "Judge Orders EPA to Produce Science Behind Pruitt’s Warming Claims," 5 June 2018
What with anthropogenic climate change, more and more people are trading in combustion motors for an electric model.

— ellen airhart, WIRED, "Alternatives to Cobalt, the Blood Diamond of Batteries," 7 June 2018
Even more dramatically, the 2015-16 marine heatwave in the Tasman Sea that persisted for more than eight months and disrupted Tasmanian fisheries and aquaculture industries was over 300 times more likely, thanks to anthropogenic climate change.

— Smithsonian, "Ocean Heatwaves Are Getting Longer and More Intense," 2 June 2018
Other debris included metal (26 percent), rubber (1.8 percent), fishing gear (1.7 percent), glass (1.4 percent), cloth/paper/lumber (1.3 percent), and and other anthropogenic items (35 percent).

— david grossman, Popular Mechanics, "Plastic Bag Found at the Bottom of the Mariana Trench," 15 May 2018
The same ingenuity that allowed humans to hit home runs with evolution’s curveballs has arguably created the risk of environmental destruction, resource exhaustion, anthropogenic climate change and thermonuclear war.

— nathan h. lents, WSJ, "The Botch of the Human Body," 13 Apr. 2018
The study was not able to factor in the influence of anthropogenic climate change effects, though, leaving open the question of how much rising flood levels are driven by engineering and how much by a warming climate.

— stephanie pappas, Scientific American, "Taming the Mighty Mississippi May Have Caused Bigger Floods," 10 Apr. 2018
Instead, Williamson literally makes no mention at all of Pruitt’s skepticism of the theory of anthropogenic global warming.

— jonathan chait, Daily Intelligencer, "National Review Shows Why Conservatives Outsourced Environmental Policy to Lobbyists and Kooks," 7 Jan. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'anthropogenic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.