How to use recessive in a sentence

15 example sentences · adjective, noun

Recessive means going back; receding. Example: “This plan takes advantage of the fact that barless is the most recessive of a series of alleles.”

Examples of recessive by meaning

adjectiveAble to be masked by a dominant allele or trait.

This plan takes advantage of the fact that barless is the most recessive of a series of alleles.1988, American Pigeon Journal, volume 76, page 36
The series of murine Agouti alleles is a consistent array as it progresses from the most recessive to the most dominant allele (Jackson, 1994).2001, D. P. Sponenberg, M. F. Rothschild, 6: Genetics of Coat Colour and Hair Texture, page 65

adjectiveNot dominant; whose effect is masked by stronger effects.

The worker–client relationship is more recessive and has a more catalytic and enabling quality.1979, Ken Heap, Process and Action in Work with Groups: The Preconditions for Treatment and Growth, page ix
The law-making or legislative component was the most recessive component of the legal system of hunter-gatherers, although decisions or advice given by mediators were remembered and used again to settle similar violations of rules or disputes among parties.2004, Jonathan H. Turner, Human Institutions: A Theory of Societal Evolution, page 112

nounA gene that is recessive.

Suppose, for example, that we started with a population consisting of pure dominants, heterozygotes, and recessives in the ratio 1 : 4 : 4.1915, Reginald Crundall Punnett, Mimicty in Butterflies, page 95
Finally, if we suppose provisionally that the mutant genes are dominant just as often as they are recessive, selection will be far more severe in eliminating the disadvantageous dominants than in eliminating the disadvantageous recessives.1930, R. A. Fisher, J. H. Bennett, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, page 50
Selection favoring recessives is common in maize breeding for several traits, such as sweetness, opacity, brachysm, lack of ligules.1988, Arnel R. Hallauer, Marcelo J. Carena, J.B. Miranda Filho, 6: Selection: Theory, 2nd edition, page 234

More sentences with recessive

It depends on whether those runs of homozygosity contain recessive disease-causing mutations.2024 March 18, Sarah Zhang, “DNA Tests Are Uncovering the True Prevalence of Incest”, in The Atlantic. From the entry homozygosity
Ellis-van Creveld (EvC) syndrome or chondroectodermal dysplasia is an autosomal recessive disorder with characteristic clinical manifestations.2013 July 9, Shilpa S Sasalawad et al., “Ellis-van Creveld syndrome”, in BMJ Case Reports, volume 2013, →DOI. From the entry chondroectodermal
Mutations are mostly deletorious and recessive and carried by heterozygous individuals.2006, Dr. Sidharth Arora, “Genes and Chromosomes”, in A Treatise on the Management of Potatoes, New Delhi: Laxmi Publications Pvt Limited…. From the entry deletorious
Intercrosses are particularly useful with recessive mutations maintained in a small colony.2000, Xavier Montagutelli, “Determining the Genetic Basis of a New Trait”, in Sundberg & Boggess, editors, Systematic Approach to…. From the entry intercross
The intermittent brachysm of line 59 was recessive to the non-brachytic, normal condition.1957, Proceedings of the American Society for Horticultural Science, volume 70, page 102. From the entry brachysm
Maybe paperphilia really isn't so different from the recessive pinings that motivate some people to own antique cars.2010, William Powers, Hamlet's BlackBerry, Harper, →ISBN, page 139. From the entry paperphilia
According to biologists with the Ministry of Natural Resources, there is a recessive colouration that produces white moose with blue eyes.1996 November 3, Jackie Laderoute, “Lost Item Redux”, in alt.folklore.urban (Usenet). From the entry spirit moose
Both of isodisomy and heterodisomy can cause genome imprinting disorders, but only uniparental isodisomy can cause recessive disorders if the chromosome harbors a disease-causing mutation.2015 July 9, “Detection of Hereditary 1,25-Hydroxyvitamin D-Resistant Rickets Caused by Uniparental Disomy of Chromosome 12 Using…. From the entry heterodisomy

Meaning of recessive

adjective Going back; receding.
adjective Able to be masked by a dominant allele or trait.
adjective Not dominant; whose effect is masked by stronger effects.

Full definition of recessive

Questions about recessive in a sentence

How do you use recessive in a sentence?: Recessive is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “This plan takes advantage of the fact that barless is the most recessive of a series of alleles.”
What is a short sentence with recessive?: “Mutations are mostly deletorious and recessive and carried by heterozygous individuals.”
What does recessive mean?: Recessive means going back; receding.

Adapted from Wiktionary: recessive (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use recessive in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/recessive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.