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Descendant vs Breed - What's the difference?

descendant | breed | Related terms |

Descendant is a related term of breed.


As nouns the difference between descendant and breed

is that descendant is (literally) one who is the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations while breed is all animals or plants of the same species or subspecies.

As an adjective descendant

is descending from a biological ancestor.

As a verb breed is

to produce offspring sexually; to bear young.

descendant

English

Adjective

(-)
  • descending from a biological ancestor.
  • proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source.

    • Usage notes

    The adjective may be spelled either with ant'' or ''ent'' as the final syllable (see descendent). The noun may be spelled only with ''ant .

    Alternative forms

    * descendent

    Antonyms

    * ascendant, ascendent, ascending

    Related terms

    * descendancy

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (literally) One who is the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.
    • ''The patriarch survived many descendants : five children, a dozen grandchildren, even a great grandchild.
  • (figuratively) A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source.
    • ''This famous medieval manuscript has many descendants .
  • (biology) A later evolutionary type.
    • ''Dogs evolved as descendants of early wolves.
  • (linguistics) A language that is descended from another.
    • English and Scots are the descendants of Old English.
  • (linguistics) A word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language.
  • * 1993 , Jens Elmegård Rasmussen, “The Slavic i''-verbs with an excursus on the Indo-European ''?''-verbs”, in Bela Brogyanyi and Reiner Lipp (editors), ''Comparative-Historical Linguistics , John Benjamins Publishing, ISBN 978-90-272-3598-5, page 479:
    • The direct descendant of this form is the Slavic aorist: Sb.-Cr. n?s?'', ''d?nos? .

    Usage notes

    The adjective may be spelled either with ant'' or ''ent'' as the final syllable (see descendent). The noun may be spelled only with ''ant .

    Synonyms

    * * *

    Antonyms

    * ascendant * ancestor * forebear

    Derived terms

    * direct descendant * indirect descendant

    See also

    * offspring * offshoot * progeny ----

    breed

    English

    Alternative forms

    * breede (archaic)

    Verb

  • To produce offspring sexually; to bear young.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
    • , title= Wild Plants to the Rescue , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
  • To give birth to; to be the native place of.
    • a pond breeds''' fish; a northern country '''breeds stout men
  • * Shakespeare
    • Yet every mother breeds not sons alike.
  • Of animals, to mate.
  • To keep animals and have them reproduce in a way that improves the next generation’s qualities.
  • To arrange the mating of specific animals.
  • To propagate or grow plants trying to give them certain qualities.
  • To take care of in infancy and through childhood; to bring up.
  • * Dryden
    • to bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed
  • * Everett
    • born and bred on the verge of the wilderness
  • To yield or result in.
  • * Milton
    • Lest the place / And my quaint habits breed astonishment.
  • (obsolete) To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, like young before birth.
  • To educate; to instruct; to form by education; to train; sometimes followed by up .
  • * Bishop Burnet
    • No care was taken to breed him a Protestant.
  • * John Locke
    • His farm may not remove his children too far from him, or the trade he breeds them up in.
  • To produce or obtain by any natural process.
  • * John Locke
    • Children would breed their teeth with less danger.
  • To have birth; to be produced or multiplied.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Heavens rain grace / On that which breeds between them.

    Synonyms

    * (take care of in infancy and through childhood) raise, bring up, rear

    Derived terms

    * breeder * breeding * breed in the bone

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • All animals or plants of the same species or subspecies.
    • a breed of tulip
    a breed of animal
  • A race or lineage.
  • (informal) A group of people with shared characteristics.
    • People who were taught classical Greek and Latin at school are a dying breed .

    Anagrams

    * English irregular verbs ----