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 The contention follows years of frustration over Western media’s frequent depiction of Africa as a homogeneous entity, said Stephanie Boateng, a British Ghanaian filmmaker in Accra. — Danielle Paquette, Washington Post, "Beyoncé released a video celebrating ‘African tradition.’ Then came the backlash.," 9 July 2020 In addition, Iceland, as Kolbert mentions, possesses one of the most genetically homogeneous populations in the world—a fact that must have made virus sequencing more straightforward. — The New Yorker, "The Mail," 29 June 2020 The companies pledged to make their workforces less homogeneous. — Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY, "George Floyd protests lead to reckoning as Black employees speak out on racism and discrimination in the workplace," 17 June 2020 The Civic Si hatch is, by virtue of its design, homogeneous. — Kevin Smith, Car and Driver, "Tested: 1992 Honda Civic Si Hatchback Hits All the Right Marks," 5 June 2020 The problem was, Atlanta didn't have a homogeneous black community, and still doesn't. — Anchorage Daily News, "‘Atlanta Way’ challenged after violent night of protests," 31 May 2020 When one makes arguments like this, a common counter-argument is that the Nordic welfare states and low crime rates are because the countries are small and homogeneous. — Ryan Cooper, TheWeek, "What America can learn from Nordic police," 5 June 2020 This spinning stirs the stars, making them hot and homogeneous throughout. — Quanta Magazine, "Colliding Black Holes Tell New Story of Stars," 6 Sep. 2016 And the Bay Area, though often perceived as a largely homogeneous territory, is seeing the full range of responses in this early phase of reopening. — Erin Allday, SFChronicle.com, "Once united, Bay Area counties take divergent paths toward reopening," 17 May 2020

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.