noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The cracking process in which organic kerogens are broken down into hydrocarbons. uncountable
2. 2
   Retrogressive evolution, as contrasted with anagenesis. uncountable

Etymology

From cata- + -genesis.

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