genuses

Noun

genus (plural genera or genuses or (nonstandard) genusses or (nonstandard) genii)

1. A category in the classification of organisms, ranking below family (Lat. familia) and above species.
   • All magnolias belong to the genus Magnolia.
   1. (by ellipsis) A taxon at this rank.
      • In most cases, at subsequent mentions of the binomial name you can abbreviate the genus with no danger of confusing the reader.
2. A group with common attributes.
   • Recollection is one of a whole genus of effects which are more or less peculiar to the phenomena that we naturally call "mental."1945, Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, page 655
3. A natural number representing any of several related measures of the complexity of a given manifold or graph.
4. Within a definition, a broader category of the defined concept.
5. A type of tuning or intonation, used within an Ancient Greek tetrachord.