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

Direct Comparison of homogeneous and heterogeneous palladium(II) catalysts for Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions. — Don Steinberg, WSJ, "The Female Scientist Who Wants to Blow Up Your TV," 5 Dec. 2018 West Antarctica, on the other hand, has a thinner and more-homogeneous crust more closely resembling the southern tip of South America. — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, "Long-Lost Continents Under Antarctica Revealed in Old Satellite Data," 8 Nov. 2018 Seattle in particular has relatively homogeneous politics — enough of a liberal lean to get the democracy voucher program off the ground in the first place. — Sarah Kliff, Vox, "Seattle’s radical plan to fight big money in politics," 5 Nov. 2018 Not the most homogeneous of skill sets but the unusual combination has paid off in a big way. — Kirby Adams, The Courier-Journal, "Indiana actor is part of Tony nominated 'SpongeBob SquarePants' musical," 8 June 2018 Sauce is a light homogeneous mixture and not intended to be a thick BBQ sauce. — Fox News, "Michael Ferraro's Memorial Day feast," 23 May 2014 For decades, integrating immigrants has posed a thorny challenge to the Danish model, intended to serve a small, homogeneous population. — Martin Selsoe Sorensen, The Seattle Times, "Harsh new laws for immigrant ‘ghettos’ in Denmark," 2 July 2018 This selective elimination makes the U.S. electorate — those citizens who actually vote — more socioeconomically homogeneous over time. — Cristian Capotescu, Washington Post, "Poor people die younger in the U.S. That skews American politics.," 31 May 2018 For decades, integrating immigrants has posed a thorny challenge to the Danish model, intended to serve a small, homogeneous population. — Martin Selsoe Sorensen, The Seattle Times, "Harsh new laws for immigrant ‘ghettos’ in Denmark," 2 July 2018

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.