prepotency

[ pree-poht-n-see ]

noun

, Genetics.

1. the ability of one parent to impress its hereditary characters on its progeny because it possesses more homozygous, dominant, or epistatic genes.

prepotency

/ prɪˈpəʊtənsɪ /

noun

1. the state or condition of being prepotent
2. genetics the ability of one parent to transmit more characteristics to its offspring than the other parent
3. botany the ability of pollen from one source to bring about fertilization more readily than that from other sources

Word History and Origins

Origin of prepotency¹

1640–50 for general sense “predominance”; < Latin praepotentia. See prepotent, -ency

Example Sentences

The hierarchy is not arranged from least noble to most noble, but instead is a hierarchy of prepotency.

From Scientific American

The two models of human development he pits against each other are actually much more similar than he realizes, except that the first one is much more a value judgment of what you should become, instead of a hierarchy of prepotency of needs, which is what Maslow proposed. Next,

From Scientific American

As Rockefeller’s oil prepotency waned, global production flourished; in a frantically developing industrialized world, oil reserves took on strategic importance.

From Slate

It goes at length into the fundamental questions of breeding, such as selection of types on both sides, the perpetuation of desirable, and the elimination of undesirable, qualities, the value of prepotency in building up a desired breed, etc.

From Project Gutenberg

The chromosomes transmit the physical bases of heredity from one generation to the next, and the heritages from the two parents are equal except in cases of prepotency.

From Project Gutenberg