Word.ws English Dictionary

island rule

island rule noun: the principle of biology that states that populations isolated onto islands may undergo evolution towards dwarfism or gigantism to better conform to available resources.

Noun

island rule

  1. (evolutionary theory) The principle of biology that states that populations isolated onto islands may undergo evolution towards dwarfism or gigantism to better conform to available resources
    Synonyms:
    Foster's rule

Synonyms of island rule

Origin of island rule

From being an empirical rule applied to evolution on islands.

Questions about island rule

What does island rule mean?
Island rule means the principle of biology that states that populations isolated onto islands may undergo evolution towards dwarfism or gigantism to better conform to available resources.
What part of speech is island rule?
Island rule is a noun.

Words near island rule in the dictionary

  1. Island of the Blessed
  2. Island of the Blest
  3. island platform
  4. island platforms
  5. Island Pond
  6. island rule
  7. island silicate
  8. island silicates
  9. island site
  10. island sites
  11. Island Southeast Asia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: island rule (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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