encephalization
encephalization noun: the amount of brain mass exceeding that related to an animal's total bodymass.
Noun
encephalization (plural encephalizations)
- The amount of brain mass exceeding that related to an animal's total bodymass.
- The answer to this will determine the encephalization quotients of the two types of early hominids, which is an important indicator of relative "braininess," an issue that is now up for grabs.1998 June 12, Dean Falk, “PALEONTOLOGY: Hominid Brain Evolution: Looks Can Be Deceiving”, in Science, volume 280, number 5370, →DOI
- It is believed that the encephalization of early Homo was made possible by the consumption of energy- and nutrient-rich animal foods to "pay" for its metabolically expensive brain.1999 January 15, Matt Sponheimer, Julia A. Lee-Thorp, “Isotopic Evidence for the Diet of an Early Hominid, Australopithecus africanus”, in Science, volume 283, number 5400, →DOI, pages 368–370
Forms of encephalization
| plural | encephalizations |
|---|---|
| alternative form | encephalisation |
Origin of encephalization
From encephalize + -ation.
Words formed from encephalization
Phrases with encephalization
Questions about encephalization
- What does encephalization mean?
- Encephalization means the amount of brain mass exceeding that related to an animal's total bodymass.
- What part of speech is encephalization?
- Encephalization is a noun.
- What is the plural of encephalization?
- The plural of encephalization is encephalizations.
Words near encephalization in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: encephalization (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:
Cite this entry: “encephalization.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/encephalization. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.