What does "orthogenesis" mean?

The hypothesis that evolution tends toward a certain goal, at least at some scales.

What is a synonym for "orthogenesis"?

Common synonyms include: birth, development, generation, genesis, parthenogenesis, procreation.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The hypothesis that evolution tends toward a certain goal, at least at some scales. countable, historical, uncountable

From ortho- + -genesis, coined by Wilhelm Haacke in 1893 and popularized with its standard meaning by Theodor Eimer.

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