eugenic

IPA/juːˈdʒenɪk/
KK[judʒˈɛnɪk]IPA/juːˈdʒenɪk/

eugenic — adjective

  • eugenicpositive
  • more eugeniccomparative
  • most eugenicsuperlative

1. describing ideas or policies that aim to improve human populations by controllin

1.adjectiveC1
Definition

describing ideas or policies that aim to improve human populations by controlling who is allowed to have children — a set of beliefs now widely condemned for their links to racism and Nazi ideology.

Example

Folake wrote her university paper on eugenic policies in early twentieth-century America.

collocation: eugenic policies

The museum exhibit showed how eugenic thinking influenced immigration laws a century ago.

eugenic thinking + influenced [noun]

Common collocations
  • eugenic policies
  • eugenic sterilisation
  • eugenic thinking
  • eugenic ideology
  • eugenic laws
  • eugenic movement
Synonyms
  • eugenical

    a less common variant with the identical meaning

Antonyms
  • dysgenic

    causing or tending to cause deterioration in the human gene pool

Usage Note

Almost always used critically today; describes discredited historical practices and ideologies. Rarely used in a neutral or positive sense outside discussions of early 20th-century history.

Common Mistakes

The scientist studied eugenic inheritance patterns.
The scientist studied genetic inheritance patterns.
'eugenic' is specifically about selective breeding of human populations, not about general biological inheritance.

Word family

  • eugenics
    nounC1
  • eugenically
    adverbC2
  • eugenicist
    nounC2
  • dysgenic
    adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

While 'genetic' and 'hereditary' describe the neutral biological passing of traits from parents to children, 'eugenic' carries a specific ideological weight — it refers to the now-discredited belief that societies should actively control human reproduction to 'improve' the population. 'Selective' is a broader term used in animal and plant breeding without the human-rights implications of 'eugenic.' 'Dysgenic' is the direct opposite: it describes factors that are thought to worsen the genetic quality of a population. Unlike 'genetic,' which appears in everyday medical and scientific contexts, 'eugenic' is almost never used without criticism — for example, a doctor might discuss 'genetic risk factors' but would never describe any modern practice as 'eugenic.'

genetic ↗hereditary ↗selective ↗dysgenic

Common collocations

Nouns

Etymology

GreekEnglish

Formed from the Greek elements eu- ('good, well') and genos ('race, birth, stock'). The noun 'eugenics' was coined by the British scientist Francis Galton in 1883 to describe the study of how to improve the human race through selective breeding. The adjective 'eugenic' appeared shortly afterwards. Though Galton originally presented eugenics as a progressive science, the term became permanently tainted by its association with forced sterilisation programmes in several countries and with the racial policies of Nazi Germany.

First known use

1883

1883, in the meaning defined at sense 1