biodiversity
noun
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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
Karl Schneider, IndyStar, 12 Nov. 2025
The Amazon is globally recognized as a major forest basin and biodiversity hotspot, but international audiences might not know that tens of millions of people also call the Amazon home.
—Jeff Young, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Nov. 2025
Best of all, for every pair of Cariuma shoes purchased, the brand plants two trees in the Brazilian rainforest to aid in reforestation efforts while improving the biodiversity of the area.
—Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 7 Nov. 2025
In the heart of the Amazon rainforest, the impact on rivers is shocking and experts are sounding the alarm on what this means for the region, a biodiversity hot spot and crucial climate change buffer.
—Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 6 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for biodiversity
Cite this Entry
“Biodiversity.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biodiversity. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.
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biodiversity
noun
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