biology
: being, possessing, or marked by a character (such as the large brain in humans) not present in the ancestral form
derived features
Examples of derived in a Sentence
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Saucedo’s father was born in Texas, and the woman is a derived citizen.
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Caroline Zimmerman, Kansas City Star, 11 June 2025
And so, the vast majority of our cells are not directly on the line of descent, but that is a derived state.
—Steven Strogatz, Quanta Magazine, 20 Mar. 2025
One of the boldest assertions of Darwin’s theory was that the fossil record should contain transitional forms—organisms exhibiting traits of both ancestral and derived species.
—Scott Travers, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2025
By combining these diagrams with the derived properties, the experts created a training dataset consisting of theorems and corresponding proofs.
—Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 6 Aug. 2024
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Caroline Zimmerman, Kansas City Star, 11 June 2025
And so, the vast majority of our cells are not directly on the line of descent, but that is a derived state.
—Steven Strogatz, Quanta Magazine, 20 Mar. 2025
One of the boldest assertions of Darwin’s theory was that the fossil record should contain transitional forms—organisms exhibiting traits of both ancestral and derived species.
—Scott Travers, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2025
By combining these diagrams with the derived properties, the experts created a training dataset consisting of theorems and corresponding proofs.
—Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 6 Aug. 2024
See All Example Sentences for derived
Cite this Entry
“Derived.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/derived. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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