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

In reality, a New Yorker would have to live a pretty cloistered life to end up in such a homogeneous clique. — Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic, "The Mysteriously Enduring Appeal of Friends," 10 Sep. 2019 Blend on high speed until the mixture is homogeneous. — Denise Drower Swidey, BostonGlobe.com, "Healthy hacks and 2 recipes to help keep your good eating habits on track," 20 Aug. 2019 Karpe played at the memorial ceremony that year, and their lyrics about integration and prejudice have always told powerful stories of the immigrant experience in a largely homogeneous society. — Heidi Taksdal Skjeseth, Billboard, "Local Hip-Hop Duo Karpe Closes Out 2019 Oya Festival in Norway With Emotional Show Under Heavy Rain," 11 Aug. 2019 But on the other, that made for a pretty homogeneous Hollywood of smooth hair and barrel waves, without tons of aspirational curls, kinks, and coils to look up to. — Glamour, "17 Celebrities Who Gave Us Rare, Incredible Glimpses at Their Curls," 8 Aug. 2019 In Poland, a narrative of history that embraces fragmentation, diversity, and intermingling is unavoidably political, disrupting a long-standing mythology of the country as a homogeneous Catholic nation. — Ruth Franklin, The New Yorker, "Olga Tokarczuk’s Novels Against Nationalism," 29 July 2019 The Path to Algorithmic Equality Silicon Valley’s rapid innovations have the power to shape ever larger parts of our lives, but the industry’s homogeneous culture often overlooks the interests of women and minorities. — New York Times, "Harassment, Equality, Power: What Leaders Said at the New Rules Summit," 17 June 2019 East West also gets beyond the temptation to treat all Asian communities as some homogeneous, monolithic block. — Makeda Easter, latimes.com, "For race-specific theater companies, the fight for diversity onstage is far from over," 13 June 2019 The criminal justice system of a socialistic European country that is fairly homogeneous and very white. — Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, "Trump and Sweden don't see eye to eye – on anything," 2 Aug. 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.