cline

¹ American  

[klahyn] / klaɪn /

noun

1. Biology. the gradual change in certain characteristics exhibited by members of a series of adjacent populations of organisms of the same species.

2. Linguistics. (in systemic linguistics) a scale of continuous gradation; continuum.

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Cline ² American  

[klahyn] / klaɪn /

noun

1. Patsy Virginia Patterson Hensley, 1932–63, U.S. country singer.

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cline ¹ British  

/ klaɪn /

noun

1. a continuous variation in form between members of a species having a wide variable geographical or ecological range

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Cline ² British  

/ klaɪn /

noun

1. Patsy , original name Virginia Patterson Hensley . 1932–63, US country singer; her bestselling records include "Walking After Midnight", "I Fall to Pieces", and "Leavin' On Your Mind"

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-cline ³ British  

combining form

1. indicating a slope

   anticline

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cline Scientific  

/ klīn /

1. A gradual change in an inherited characteristic across the geographic range of a species, usually correlated with an environmental transition such as altitude, temperature, or moisture. For example, the body size in a species of warm-blooded animals tends to be larger in cooler climates (a latitudinal cline), while the flowering time of a plant may tend to be later at higher altitudes (an altitudinal cline). In species in which the gene flow between adjacent populations is high, the cline is typically smooth, whereas in populations with restricted gene flow the cline usually occurs as a series of relatively abrupt changes from one group to the next.

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Other Word Forms

• -clinal combining form
• clinal adjective
• clinally adverb

Etymology

Origin of cline

1935–40; < Greek klī́nein to lean ¹

Example Sentences

Alternatively, flowering plants tend to bloom at different times depending on where they are along the slope of a mountain, known as an altitudinal cline.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

A cline is a change in ecological conditions over a geographic distance.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

Van Tuyl and Pereltsvaig make much of the fact that the global cline in phonemic diversity does not hold within all continents.

From Science Magazine • Feb. 9, 2012

Therefore, the observation of an Africa-based phoneme inventory cline does not generalize to other linguistic characteristics of a similar kind.

From Science Magazine • Feb. 9, 2012

There is a similar cline in western Montana in color.

From Subspeciation in the Meadow Mouse, Microtus pennsylvanicus, in Wyoming, Colorado, and Adjacent Areas by Anderson, Sydney