TAXON (taxa)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: taxa   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does taxon mean? 

• TAXON (noun)
  The noun TAXON has 1 sense:

1. animal or plant group having natural relations

  Familiarity information: TAXON used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TAXON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Animal or plant group having natural relations

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

taxon; taxonomic category; taxonomic group

Hypernyms ("taxon" is a kind of...):

biological group (a group of plants or animals)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "taxon"):

family ((biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more genera)

Phycomycetes; Phycomycetes group (a large and probably unnatural group of fungi and funguslike organisms comprising the Mastigomycota (including the Oomycetes) and Zygomycota subdivisions of the division Eumycota; a category not used in all systems)

Amentiferae; group Amentiferae (used in some classification systems for plants that bear catkins)

Centrospermae; group Centrospermae (used in former classification systems; approximately synonymous with order Caryophyllales)

group Pteridospermae; group Pteridospermaphyta; Pteridospermae; Pteridospermaphyta (used in some classification systems: a group of extinct fossil gymnosperms coextensive with the order Cycadofilicales)

type ((biology) the taxonomic group whose characteristics are used to define the next higher taxon)

form; strain; var.; variant ((biology) a group of organisms within a species that differ in trivial ways from similar groups)

race; subspecies ((biology) a taxonomic group that is a division of a species; usually arises as a consequence of geographical isolation within a species)

species ((biology) taxonomic group whose members can interbreed)

monotype ((biology) a taxonomic group with a single member (a single species or genus))

subgenus ((biology) taxonomic group between a genus and a species)

genus ((biology) taxonomic group containing one or more species)

tribe ((biology) a taxonomic category between a genus and a subfamily)

subfamily ((biology) a taxonomic category below a family)

superfamily ((biology) a taxonomic group ranking below an order but above a family)

Adapid; Adapid group (extinct small mostly diurnal lower primates that fed on leaves and fruit; abundant in North America and Europe 30 to 50 million years ago; their descendents probably include the lemurs; some authorities consider them ancestral to anthropoids but others consider them only cousins)

superorder ((biology) a taxonomic group ranking above an order and below a class or subclass)

suborder ((biology) taxonomic group that is a subdivision of an order)

order ((biology) taxonomic group containing one or more families)

superclass ((biology) a taxonomic class below a phylum and above a class)

subclass ((biology) a taxonomic category below a class and above an order)

class ((biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more orders)

superphylum ((biology) a taxonomic group ranking between a phylum and below a class or subclass)

subphylum ((biology) a taxonomic group ranking between a phylum and a class)

phylum ((biology) the major taxonomic group of animals and plants; contains classes)

variety ((biology) a taxonomic category consisting of members of a species that differ from others of the same species in minor but heritable characteristics)

subkingdom ((biology) a taxonomic group comprising a major division of a kingdom)

kingdom (the highest taxonomic group into which organisms are grouped; one of five biological categories: Monera or Protoctista or Plantae or Fungi or Animalia)

Omomyid; Omomyid group (extinct tiny nocturnal lower primates that fed on fruit and insects; abundant in North America and Europe 30 to 50 million years ago; probably gave rise to the tarsiers; some authorities consider them ancestral to anthropoids but others consider them only cousins)

 Context examples 

Boolean value indicating if this is the preferred taxon.

(Is Preferred, NCI Thesaurus)

An object representing a specific chromosome for a specific taxon; provides access to all known genes contained in the chromosome and to the taxon.

(Chromosome Object, NCI Thesaurus)

The researchers selected for those microbial taxa that best survived on the plants, then showed that these "domesticated" microbial communities can fend off random microbes that land on the plants.

(How do you cultivate a healthy plant microbiome?, National Science Foundation)

Any haplorhine primate not belonging to the family Tarsiidae, Hylobatidae, Pongidae, or Hominidae; this does not correspond to any taxon.

(Monkey, NCI Thesaurus)