Definition of HOMOGENEOUS

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The scientific theories of Jules Verne's bold French adventurer, Michel Ardan, might have been a bit flawed (it's more accurate to classify the solar system as "heterogenous" - that is, consisting of dissimilar ingredients or constituents), but his use of the English word homogeneous was perfectly correct. Homogeneous, which derives from the Greek roots homos, meaning "same," and genos, meaning "kind," has been used in English since the mid-1600s. The similar word homogenous (originally created for the science of genetics and used with the meaning "of, relating to, or derived from another individual of the same species") can also be a synonym of homogeneous. The words need not be used exclusively in scientific contexts - one can speak of, for example, "a homogenous/homogeneous community."

Examples of homogeneous in a Sentence

In their natural state, mountains of this type are almost entirely covered by dense forest. The wooded landscape is very uniform, lacking in contrast, and any disturbance of the homogeneous green blanket is very obvious … — John Crowley, Focus on Geography, Winter 2007 One odd side effect is that, during the last 20 years, the formerly homogeneous, rather stodgy world of academic criticism has diversified into an incoherent mob of competing factions. — Walter Kendrick, New York Times Book Review, 24 Dec. 1995 The Benedictine convents for women, which had begun to be founded soon after Benedict's day, became particularly homogeneous in their social composition. The nuns of the ninth and tenth centuries were all high-born ladies, and it was almost impossible to be admitted to these convents without being a widowed or maiden relative of an important lord. — Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages, 1993 a fairly homogeneous collection of examples

Recent Examples on the Web Basically, the right combination of chemicals will continue to stir, change, and shift without settling into one homogeneous or even heterogeneous still mixture. — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, "Scientists Made the World's First Chemical Turing Machine," 9 Jan. 2020 Many families moved to suburban districts that were more homogeneous and devoid of busing. — Howard Blume, latimes.com, "School busing and race tore L.A. apart in the 1970s. Now, Kamala Harris is reviving debate," 28 June 2019 For many experts, Iran is too often seen in the West as a simple, homogeneous entity that thinks and acts in a unified manner. — NBC News, "Iran protests: Crowds in Tehran refuse to walk on U.S. and Israeli flags," 13 Jan. 2020 But then Miuccia Prada, who had led the way in promoting a nearly homogeneous catwalk of pale, white, thin models, suddenly embraced an hourglass shape. — National Geographic, "The idea of beauty is always shifting. Today, it’s more inclusive than ever.," 7 Jan. 2020 In contrast, the subpallium looks like a homogeneous lump of neurons that stores and later activates learned movement patterns. — Onur Güntürkün, Scientific American, "“Birdbrain” Turns from Insult to Praise," 1 Jan. 2020 After Harris’ withdrawal, both Booker and Castro publicly addressed the increasingly homogeneous Democratic field, noting the double standards that candidates of color and women encounter. — Soraya Chemaly, Glamour, "Kamala Harris Won't Be on Tonight's Debate Stage. No Matter Who You Support, That Should Matter to You," 19 Dec. 2019 American businessmen are not a philosophically homogeneous lot. — Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, "Don’t Run a Government Like a Business," 15 Oct. 2019 Sure, there have been spats before, but the WAG is usually seen in the media as a relatively homogeneous demographic, with individual disputes rarely coming to the surface. — Rob Picheta, CNN, "An illustrated history of the WAG; or, how Coleen Rooney broke Britain," 12 Oct. 2019

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