Word.ws English Dictionary

ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny

ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny proverb: the physical, cultural, moral, or intellectual development of each individual passes through stages similar to the developmental stages of that individual's species, society, or civilization. Not taken literally since the late 19th century.

Proverb

ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny

  1. The physical, cultural, moral, or intellectual development of each individual passes through stages similar to the developmental stages of that individual's species, society, or civilization. Not taken literally since the late 19th century.
    • With reference to seedling stages the statement that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny must be made with great reserve.1905, J. A. Harris, "The Importance of Investigations of Seedling Stages," Science, New Series, vol. 22, no. 554, p. 186
    • Haeckel maintained that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, and this idea was incorporated by Lombroso into his parallelism between the criminal and the child.1961, M. E. Wolfgang, “Pioneers in Criminology: Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909)”, in The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, volume 52, number 4, page 367

Origin of ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny

Reportedly coined by zoologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919).

Questions about ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny

What does ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny mean?
Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny means the physical, cultural, moral, or intellectual development of each individual passes through stages similar to the developmental stages of that individual's species, society, or civilization. Not taken literally since the late 19th century.
What part of speech is ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny?
Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny is a proverb.

Words near ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny in the dictionary

  1. ontogenically
  2. ontogenies
  3. ontogenist
  4. ontogenists
  5. ontogeny
  6. ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny
  7. ontogimorph
  8. ontogimorphs
  9. ontogram
  10. ontograms
  11. ontographic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny (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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