species

Noun

species (countable and uncountable, plural species or (rare, nonstandard) specieses)

1. A type or kind. (Compare race.)
   • the male species
   • a new species of war
   1. A group of sexually reproducing organisms of which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction, usually having similar appearance.
      • This species of animal is unique to the area.
      • Louise felt raised above her species; a voice had spoken within her inmost soul, whose revealings were vouchsafed but to the chosen few; and what had been indifference, was now disdain.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 103
   2. A category in the classification of organisms, ranking below genus; a taxon at that rank.
      • Hence, in determining whether a form should be ranked as a species or a variety, the opinion of naturalists having sound judgment and wide experience seems the only guide to follow.1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Variation under Nature”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 47
      • Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants.1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii
   3. An individual or kind of a biological species.
   4. A particular type of atom, molecule, ion or other particle.
   5. A mineral with a unique chemical formula whose crystals belong to a unique crystallographic system.
2. (obsolete) The image of something cast on a surface, or reflected from a surface, or refracted through a lens or telescope; a reflection.
   • I cast the species of the Sun onto a sheet of paper through a telescope.
3. (obsolete) Visible or perceptible presentation; appearance; something perceived.
   • Wit,[…]the faculty of imagination in the writer, which searches over all the memory for the species or ideas of those things which it designs to represent.1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number)
   • the species of the letters illuminated with indigo and violet1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin]...
4. Either of the two elements of the Eucharist after they have been consecrated.
5. Coin, or coined silver, gold, or other metal, used as a circulating medium; specie.
   • There was, in the splendour of the Roman empire, a less quantity of current species in Europe than there is now.1727, John Arbuthnot, Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights and Measures
6. A component part of compound medicine; a simple.