natural selection

English

Etymology

Coined by Charles Darwin in its 1859 work On the Origin of Species.

Noun

natural selection (uncountable)

1. (evolutionary theory) A process by which heritable traits conferring survival and reproductive advantage to individuals, or related individuals, tend to be passed on to succeeding generations and become more frequent in a population, whereas other less favourable traits tend to become eliminated.
2. (quantitative genetics) A process in which individual organisms or phenotypes that possess favourable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce: the differential survival and reproduction of phenotypes.

Related terms

• artificial selection
• sexual selection

Translations

natural selection

• Armenian: բնական ընտրություն (bnakan əntrutʿyun)
• Catalan: selecció natural f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 自然選擇, 自然选择 (zi⁶ jin⁴ syun² zaak⁶), 天擇, 天择 (tin¹ zaak⁶)

  Mandarin: 自然選擇 (zh), 自然选择 (zh) (zìrán xuǎnzé), 天擇 (zh), 天择 (zh) (tiānzé)

  Min Nan: 自然選擇, 自然选择 (chū-jiân soán-te̍k), 天擇, 天择 (thian-te̍k)

• Czech: přírodní výběr m
• Danish: naturlig selektion c
• Dutch: natuurlijke selectie f
• Esperanto: natura selektado
• Finnish: luonnonvalinta (fi)
• French: sélection naturelle (fr) f
• German: natürliche Selektion (de) f, natürliche Auslese (de) f, natürliche Zuchtwahl f
• Greek: φυσική επιλογή (el) f (fysikí epilogí)
• Hebrew: ברירה טבעית‏‎
• Icelandic: náttúruval n
• Indonesian: seleksi alami (id)
• Italian: selezione naturale f
• Japanese: 自然選択 (しぜんせんたく shizen-sentaku), 自然淘汰 (しぜんとうた shizen-tōta)
• Kazakh: қозғаушы сұрыпталу (qozğawşı surıptalw)

• Korean: 자연선택 (jha yeon seon tek) / 자연도태 (jha yeon doe tae)
• Latvian: dabiskā izlase f
• Malay: pemilihan semula jadi, pemilihan alamiah
• Mongolian: байгалийн шалгарал (bajgalijn šalgaral)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: naturlig seleksjon m, naturlig utvalg n

  Nynorsk: naturleg seleksjon m, naturleg utval n

• Novial: natural selektione
• Polish: dobór naturalny m, selekcja naturalna f
• Portuguese: seleção natural (pt) f
• Romanian: selecție naturală (ro) f
• Russian: есте́ственный отбо́р m (jestéstvennyj otbór)
• Serbo-Croatian: природна селекција, prirodna selekcija
• Spanish: selección natural (es) f
• Swedish: naturligt urval n
• Tagalog: piliang likas
• Turkish: doğal seçilim
• Uzbek: tabiiy tanlanish
• Yiddish: נאַטירלעכע סעלעקציע‏‎ f (natirlekhe selektsye)