"acquired characteristic" meaning in English

See acquired characteristic in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: acquired characteristics [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} acquired characteristic (plural acquired characteristics)
  1. (evolutionary theory) A change or modification to a living organism that occurs during its lifetime, that is not incorporated into its DNA, and hence cannot be passed on to its offspring; for example, the loss of a limb in an accident, or stunted growth due to inadequate nutrition. Translations (Translations): صِفَة مُكْتَسَبَة (alt: ṣifa(t) muktasaba) [feminine] (Arabic)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "acquired characteristics",
      "tags": [
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    }
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  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "acquired characteristic (plural acquired characteristics)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
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          "name": "Evolutionary theory",
          "orig": "en:Evolutionary theory",
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        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A change or modification to a living organism that occurs during its lifetime, that is not incorporated into its DNA, and hence cannot be passed on to its offspring; for example, the loss of a limb in an accident, or stunted growth due to inadequate nutrition."
      ],
      "id": "en-acquired_characteristic-en-noun-pjm9ZsK1",
      "links": [
        [
          "evolutionary theory",
          "evolutionary theory"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "evolutionary theory",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(evolutionary theory) A change or modification to a living organism that occurs during its lifetime, that is not incorporated into its DNA, and hence cannot be passed on to its offspring; for example, the loss of a limb in an accident, or stunted growth due to inadequate nutrition."
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "alt": "ṣifa(t) muktasaba",
          "code": "ar",
          "lang": "Arabic",
          "lang_code": "ar",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "صِفَة مُكْتَسَبَة"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "acquired characteristic"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "acquired characteristics",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
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        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Arabic translations",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss",
        "en:Evolutionary theory"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A change or modification to a living organism that occurs during its lifetime, that is not incorporated into its DNA, and hence cannot be passed on to its offspring; for example, the loss of a limb in an accident, or stunted growth due to inadequate nutrition."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "evolutionary theory",
          "evolutionary theory"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "evolutionary theory",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(evolutionary theory) A change or modification to a living organism that occurs during its lifetime, that is not incorporated into its DNA, and hence cannot be passed on to its offspring; for example, the loss of a limb in an accident, or stunted growth due to inadequate nutrition."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "alt": "ṣifa(t) muktasaba",
      "code": "ar",
      "lang": "Arabic",
      "lang_code": "ar",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "صِفَة مُكْتَسَبَة"
    }
  ],
  "word": "acquired characteristic"
}

Download raw JSONL data for acquired characteristic meaning in English (1.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). 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.

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