clines

Noun (1)

cline (plural clines)

1. (systematics, evolution) 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
2. 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

Noun (2)

cline (plural clines)

1. (inversive geometry) 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

   Synonyms:

   circline, generalized circle

See all 4 meanings of cline