"plesiomorphic" meaning in English

See plesiomorphic in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ˌplizioʊˈmɔɹfɪk/ [General-American] Forms: more plesiomorphic [comparative], most plesiomorphic [superlative]
Etymology: From plesiomorph + -ic or plesio- + -morphic. Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|plesiomorph|-ic}} plesiomorph + -ic, {{af|en|plesio-|-morphic}} plesio- + -morphic Head templates: {{en-adj}} plesiomorphic (comparative more plesiomorphic, superlative most plesiomorphic)
  1. (cladistics) Sharing a character state with an ancestral clade; primitive.
    Sense id: en-plesiomorphic-en-adj-orToWu7N Categories (other): Taxonomy, English entries with incorrect language header, English terms prefixed with plesio-, English terms suffixed with -ic, English terms suffixed with -morphic, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 99 1 Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with plesio-: 93 7 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -ic: 93 7 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -morphic: 95 5 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 100 0 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 100 0
  2. Plesiomorphous.
    Sense id: en-plesiomorphic-en-adj-SavrZTTi
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: primitive, basal Derived forms: plesiomorphically Related terms: plesiomorphy, apomorphic, paedomorphic
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        "1": "en",
        "2": "plesiomorph",
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        "3": "-morphic"
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      "name": "af"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From plesiomorph + -ic or plesio- + -morphic.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more plesiomorphic",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most plesiomorphic",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "plesiomorphic (comparative more plesiomorphic, superlative most plesiomorphic)",
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    {
      "parts": [
        "ple",
        "sio",
        "mor",
        "phic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "plesiomorphy"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "apomorphic"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "paedomorphic"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
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          "langcode": "en",
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          "parents": [],
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          "parents": [],
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          "parents": [],
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          "ref": "2000, Christine A. Nalepa, Claudio Bandi, “Paedomorphosis and Termite Evolution”, in Termites: Evolution, Sociality, Symbioses, Ecology, →ISBN, page 68:",
          "text": "[T]he cockroach Polyphaga may represent a condition more plesiomorphic than in other Dictyoptera, but it could as well be paedomorphic, and therefore more derived than in other Dictyoptera [72].",
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          "text": "\"The cranium is clearly plesiomorphic in overall form, presenting primitive traits shared by earlier hominins,\" the authors wrote.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      "glosses": [
        "Sharing a character state with an ancestral clade; primitive."
      ],
      "id": "en-plesiomorphic-en-adj-orToWu7N",
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(cladistics) Sharing a character state with an ancestral clade; primitive."
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Plesiomorphous."
      ],
      "id": "en-plesiomorphic-en-adj-SavrZTTi",
      "links": [
        [
          "Plesiomorphous",
          "plesiomorphous#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌplizioʊˈmɔɹfɪk/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "primitive"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "basal"
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English terms prefixed with plesio-",
    "English terms suffixed with -ic",
    "English terms suffixed with -morphic",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
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  ],
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  "forms": [
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      "form": "more plesiomorphic",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
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    },
    {
      "form": "most plesiomorphic",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
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          "text": "[T]he cockroach Polyphaga may represent a condition more plesiomorphic than in other Dictyoptera, but it could as well be paedomorphic, and therefore more derived than in other Dictyoptera [72].",
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          "text": "\"The cranium is clearly plesiomorphic in overall form, presenting primitive traits shared by earlier hominins,\" the authors wrote.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        "(cladistics) Sharing a character state with an ancestral clade; primitive."
      ]
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      "tags": [
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "primitive"
    },
    {
      "word": "basal"
    }
  ],
  "word": "plesiomorphic"
}

Download raw JSONL data for plesiomorphic meaning in English (2.5kB)

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  "msg": "unrecognized sense qualifier: cladistics",
  "path": [
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  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "adjective",
  "title": "plesiomorphic",
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{
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-05-31 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-05-01 using wiktextract (702fa29 and 7f4db16). 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.