species

1. 1.

   (biology) taxonomic group whose members can interbreed

   Broadertaxonomic group

   Narrowerbacteria speciesendangered speciesfish speciestype species

   Part ofgenus

   Partsvariety

   biology

2. 2.

   a specific kind of something

   “a species of molecule”

   “a species of villainy”

   Broaderkind

Other forms of species

plural

species(unchanged)

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about species

What does species mean?

species means "(biology) taxonomic group whose members can interbreed". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in species?

species has 2 syllables: spe-cies. The stress falls on "spe". In IPA it is /ˈspiʃiz/.

Is species a common word?

species is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.