"K-selection" meaning in All languages combined

See K-selection on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Etymology: Coined by the American ecologists Robert H. MacArthur and E. O. Wilson in 1967. The choice of the letter K came from the German Kapazitätsgrenze (“capacity limit”). Etymology templates: {{der|en|de|Kapazitätsgrenze|t=capacity limit}} German Kapazitätsgrenze (“capacity limit”) Head templates: {{en-noun|-|head=K-selection}} K-selection (uncountable)
  1. (ecology) A theory involving natural selection based on quality. Wikipedia link: E. O. Wilson, Robert H. MacArthur Tags: uncountable Related terms: r/K selection theory, r-selection
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "de",
        "3": "Kapazitätsgrenze",
        "t": "capacity limit"
      },
      "expansion": "German Kapazitätsgrenze (“capacity limit”)",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by the American ecologists Robert H. MacArthur and E. O. Wilson in 1967. The choice of the letter K came from the German Kapazitätsgrenze (“capacity limit”).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "head": "K-selection"
      },
      "expansion": "K-selection (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms containing italics",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Ecology",
          "orig": "en:Ecology",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A theory involving natural selection based on quality."
      ],
      "id": "en-K-selection-en-noun-Ftzfy7Ig",
      "links": [
        [
          "ecology",
          "ecology"
        ],
        [
          "theory",
          "theory"
        ],
        [
          "natural selection",
          "natural selection"
        ],
        [
          "quality",
          "quality"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(ecology) A theory involving natural selection based on quality."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "r/K selection theory"
        },
        {
          "word": "r-selection"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "biology",
        "ecology",
        "natural-sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "E. O. Wilson",
        "Robert H. MacArthur"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "K-selection"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "de",
        "3": "Kapazitätsgrenze",
        "t": "capacity limit"
      },
      "expansion": "German Kapazitätsgrenze (“capacity limit”)",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by the American ecologists Robert H. MacArthur and E. O. Wilson in 1967. The choice of the letter K came from the German Kapazitätsgrenze (“capacity limit”).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "head": "K-selection"
      },
      "expansion": "K-selection (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "r/K selection theory"
    },
    {
      "word": "r-selection"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English coinages",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms containing italics",
        "English terms derived from German",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Ecology"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A theory involving natural selection based on quality."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "ecology",
          "ecology"
        ],
        [
          "theory",
          "theory"
        ],
        [
          "natural selection",
          "natural selection"
        ],
        [
          "quality",
          "quality"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(ecology) A theory involving natural selection based on quality."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "biology",
        "ecology",
        "natural-sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "E. O. Wilson",
        "Robert H. MacArthur"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "K-selection"
}

Download raw JSONL data for K-selection meaning in All languages combined (1.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-05-27 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-20 using wiktextract (a4e883e and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.