"spontaneous generation" meaning in English

See spontaneous generation in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: spontaneous generations [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} spontaneous generation (countable and uncountable, plural spontaneous generations)
  1. (evolutionary theory, historical) The fancied production of live organisms without previously existing parents from inorganic matter, or from decomposing organic matter, a notion which at one time had many supporters. Tags: countable, historical, uncountable Categories (topical): Evolutionary theory Related terms: abiogenesis Translations (Translations): generació espontània [feminine] (Catalan), spontaani sikiäminen (Finnish), génération spontanée [feminine] (French), xeración espontánea [feminine] (Galician), abiogeneza [feminine] (Polish), samorództwo [neuter] (Polish), archigonia [feminine] (Polish), generare spontană [feminine] (Romanian), generación espontánea [feminine] (Spanish), kusang pagkalikha (Tagalog), singaw-buhay (Tagalog)
    Sense id: en-spontaneous_generation-en-noun-MsEognQH Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Obsolete scientific theories

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for spontaneous generation meaning in English (2.8kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "spontaneous generations",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "spontaneous generation (countable and uncountable, plural spontaneous generations)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Evolutionary theory",
          "orig": "en:Evolutionary theory",
          "parents": [
            "Biology",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Obsolete scientific theories",
          "orig": "en:Obsolete scientific theories",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The fancied production of live organisms without previously existing parents from inorganic matter, or from decomposing organic matter, a notion which at one time had many supporters."
      ],
      "id": "en-spontaneous_generation-en-noun-MsEognQH",
      "links": [
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        [
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        [
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        ],
        [
          "organism",
          "organism"
        ],
        [
          "parent",
          "parent"
        ],
        [
          "inorganic",
          "inorganic"
        ],
        [
          "matter",
          "matter"
        ],
        [
          "organic",
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        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "evolutionary theory",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(evolutionary theory, historical) The fancied production of live organisms without previously existing parents from inorganic matter, or from decomposing organic matter, a notion which at one time had many supporters."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "abiogenesis"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "historical",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "generació espontània"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "spontaani sikiäminen"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "génération spontanée"
        },
        {
          "code": "gl",
          "lang": "Galician",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "xeración espontánea"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "abiogeneza"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "samorództwo"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "archigonia"
        },
        {
          "code": "ro",
          "lang": "Romanian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "generare spontană"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "generación espontánea"
        },
        {
          "code": "tl",
          "lang": "Tagalog",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "kusang pagkalikha"
        },
        {
          "code": "tl",
          "lang": "Tagalog",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "singaw-buhay"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "spontaneous generation"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "spontaneous generations",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "spontaneous generation (countable and uncountable, plural spontaneous generations)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "abiogenesis"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with historical senses",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss",
        "en:Evolutionary theory",
        "en:Obsolete scientific theories"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The fancied production of live organisms without previously existing parents from inorganic matter, or from decomposing organic matter, a notion which at one time had many supporters."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "evolutionary theory",
          "evolutionary theory"
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        [
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        ],
        [
          "organism",
          "organism"
        ],
        [
          "parent",
          "parent"
        ],
        [
          "inorganic",
          "inorganic"
        ],
        [
          "matter",
          "matter"
        ],
        [
          "organic",
          "organic"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "evolutionary theory",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(evolutionary theory, historical) The fancied production of live organisms without previously existing parents from inorganic matter, or from decomposing organic matter, a notion which at one time had many supporters."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "historical",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "generació espontània"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "spontaani sikiäminen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "génération spontanée"
    },
    {
      "code": "gl",
      "lang": "Galician",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "xeración espontánea"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "abiogeneza"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "samorództwo"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "archigonia"
    },
    {
      "code": "ro",
      "lang": "Romanian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "generare spontană"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "generación espontánea"
    },
    {
      "code": "tl",
      "lang": "Tagalog",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "kusang pagkalikha"
    },
    {
      "code": "tl",
      "lang": "Tagalog",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "singaw-buhay"
    }
  ],
  "word": "spontaneous generation"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.