Clinal
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Pertaining to beds or rest. not-comparable
"‘Strange,’ Enderby said. ‘Here we both are, in a clinal situation so to speak, a bed context I mean, the Greek word means to lean or repose I suppose, hence bed, hence clinic by the way, and this has nothing to do with my feverish imaginings.’"
- 2 Pertaining to a cline. not-comparable
"Clinal variation in the size of the secondary sexual character may be due to the effects of the Fisher or the handicap process."
- 3 Describing a torsion angle between 30° and 150° not-comparable, physical
Example
More examples"‘Strange,’ Enderby said. ‘Here we both are, in a clinal situation so to speak, a bed context I mean, the Greek word means to lean or repose I suppose, hence bed, hence clinic by the way, and this has nothing to do with my feverish imaginings.’"
Etymology
From Ancient Greek κλίνη (klínē, “bed”) + -al.
From cline + -al.
Related phrases
More for "clinal"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.