Word.ws English Dictionary

adaptationism

adaptationism noun: the view that many traits of organisms are evolved adaptations.

Noun

adaptationism (uncountable)

  1. (evolutionary theory) The view that many traits of organisms are evolved adaptations.
  2. (evolutionary theory) A set of methods for distinguishing traits resulting from adaptation from those arising through other processes.
    • Until one is clear about just what one means by adaptationism, what evidence one needs to accuse someone of being an "adaptationist" will remain vague; this rather diminishes the force of the accusation.2006, Massimo Pigliucci, Jonathan Michael Kaplan, Making Sense of Evolution: The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago Press
  3. (derogatory, evolutionary theory) The belief that all traits are adaptations brought about by natural selection, when some are only functionless by-products (also called "spandrels").

Origin of adaptationism

From adaptation + -ism.

Questions about adaptationism

What does adaptationism mean?
Adaptationism means the view that many traits of organisms are evolved adaptations.
What part of speech is adaptationism?
Adaptationism is a noun.

Words near adaptationism in the dictionary

  1. adaptates
  2. adaptating
  3. adaptation
  4. adaptational
  5. adaptationally
  6. adaptationism
  7. adaptationist
  8. adaptationists
  9. adaptations
  10. adaptative
  11. adaptatively

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: adaptationism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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