What does "eugenics" mean?

A social philosophy or practice which advocates the improvement of human hereditary qualities through selective breeding, either by encouraging people with superior genetic qualities to reproduce (positive eugenics), or discouraging people with inferior genetic qualities from reproducing (negative eugenics), or by technological means.

What is a synonym for "eugenics"?

Common synonyms include: advance, advancement, allele, allelomorph, altmann theory, amelioration.

How do you pronounce "eugenics"?

Pronounced //juːˈd͡ʒɛnɪks//.

Eugenics

//juːˈd͡ʒɛnɪks// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1
A social philosophy or practice which advocates the improvement of human hereditary qualities through selective breeding, either by encouraging people with superior genetic qualities to reproduce (positive eugenics), or discouraging people with inferior genetic qualities from reproducing (negative eugenics), or by technological means. uncountable
"In keeping with the goals of the new eugenics movement, McCulloch was claiming to offer scientific evidence of the incorrigibility of poor rural whites."
2
the study of methods of improving genetic qualities by selective breeding (especially as applied to human mating) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

advance advancement allele allelomorph altmann theory amelioration

Antonyms

All antonyms

cacogenics dysgenics

Example

More examples

"Tom worried that warfare was really a form of eugenics secretly agreed upon by opposing rulers."

Etymology

Coined by Francis Galton in 1883. From ἐΰς (eǘs, “good”) + γίγνομαι (gígnomai, “breeding”), “well-bred”, “good in stock”. Parallel to Eugene. By surface analysis, eugenic + -s.

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