What does "weismannism" mean?

The principle that hereditary information moves only from genes to body cells, and never the other way round.

What is a synonym for "weismannism"?

Common synonyms include: birth, character, chromosome, determinant, diathesis, dna.

Weismannism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
The principle that hereditary information moves only from genes to body cells, and never the other way round. uncountable
"Publications: "Some Observations Upon a Series of Kalmuck Skulls"; "Outlines of Vertebrate Evolution"; and numerous papers, including "The underlying fallacy of Weissmannism," which caused heated discussion at the Zoological Congress of Vienna."

Synonyms

All synonyms

birth character chromosome determinant diathesis dna

Example

More examples

"Publications: "Some Observations Upon a Series of Kalmuck Skulls"; "Outlines of Vertebrate Evolution"; and numerous papers, including "The underlying fallacy of Weissmannism," which caused heated discussion at the Zoological Congress of Vienna."

Etymology

From Weismann + -ism, after August Weismann, who proposed the theory.

Related phrases

neo-Weismannism

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.