cline
/klaɪn/
cline noun: a gradation in a character or phenotype within a species, deme, or other systematic group.
Noun (1)
cline (plural clines)
- A gradation in a character or phenotype within a species, deme, or other systematic group.
- [A cline is a] character gradient, wherein a character such as length increases or decreases gradually and continuously. A cline distributed over geographic space is a "chorocline"; a cline distributed over time is a "chronocline." Compare with chorospecies and chronospecies. . .
- Simpson termed the change through time a "chronocline", where a cline represents a character gradient. A chunk of a chronocline comprises a chronospecies. The difficulty with identifying a chronospecies resides, then, in first identifying a chronocline, or temporal gradient in a character or...2000 Michael J. O'Brien and R. Lee Lyman: Applying Evolutionary Archaeology →ISBN
- Any graduated continuum.
- The cline of instantiation is a dimension that organizes systems of all kinds — physical systems like that of meteorology, biological systems, social systems and semiotic systems. In the realm of semiotic systems, text lies at the instance end of the cline. Text is "semiotic weather"; but what...2004 Language typology: a functional perspective →ISBN
- This account effectively reconstructs the well-known grammaticalisation cline from anaphora to agreement, …2005, Ronnie Cann, Ruth Kempson, Lutz Marten, The Dynamics of Language, an Introduction, page 412
Noun (2)
cline (plural clines)
- A generalized circle.
- Let C₁ and C₂ be two nonintersecting clines. Prove that there is a unique pair of points that are simultaneously symmetric to both C₁ and C₂.2001, Michael Henle, Modern Geometries: Non-Euclidean, Projective, and Discrete, page 77
- To visualize Möbius transformations, it is helpful to focus on fixed points and, in the case of two fixed points, on two families of clines with respect to these points.2009, Michael P. Hitchman, Geometry with an Introduction to Cosmic Topology, page 64
- Synonyms:
- circline, generalized circle
Proper noun capitalized: Cline
Cline
- A surname.
cline meaning in Tamil
cline in Tamil
- உயிர்ச்சாய்வு
Synonyms of cline
Forms of cline
| plural | clines |
|---|
Origin of cline
From Ancient Greek κλῑ́νω (klī́nō, “to lean, incline”). Introduced by English evolutionary biologist and eugenicist Julian Huxley in 1938 after British mycologist John Ramsbottom suggested the term.
From c(ircle) + line; compare circline.
Words formed from cline
Words that rhyme with cline
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- design
- divine
- combine
- pine
- spline
- swine
- consign
- frankenstein
- nine
- refine
- vine
- whine
- benign
- chine
- in line
- intertwine
- recline
- resign
- rine
- undermine
- wine
- affine
- anodyne
- dine
- gold mine
- incline
- malign
- opine
- outshine
- propine
- red line
- shrine
- syne
- tine
- trunk line
- tyne
- atrine
- berine
- bine
- brine
- confine
- disentwine
- einstein
- equine
- offline
- quine
- repine
- rhine
Questions about cline
- What does cline mean?
- Cline means a gradation in a character or phenotype within a species, deme, or other systematic group.
- What is cline in Tamil?
- Cline in Tamil is உயிர்ச்சாய்வு. See Cline meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is cline?
- Cline can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce cline?
- Cline is pronounced /klaɪn/.
- What is the plural of cline?
- The plural of cline is clines.
Words near cline in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cline (page history and authors); Cline (page history and authors); cline (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cline.wav.
Cite this entry: “cline.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cline. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.