biodiversity
noun
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Biodiversity may become the rallying call for the next decade, wrote David Wake in the journal Science in 1989. Indeed, biodiversity is a word you're likely to encounter in writing about ecology and the environment today. But when Wake used it, "biodiversity" was still a relatively new addition to the English language, having first appeared in writing in the mid-1980s. Of course, the roots of biodiversity are much older. It evolved from a commingling of the descendants of the Greek noun bios, which means "mode of life," and the Latin verb divertere, which means "to turn aside" or "to go different ways."
Examples of biodiversity in a Sentence
Nitin Sekar, ArsTechnica, 5 Apr. 2025
Sustainable measures used in Rosewood São Paulo’s creation include the meticulous restoration of historical buildings, a biodiversity program with more than 250 species of plant and trees and more than 50,000 native bees released in the hotel’s spaces.
—Roger Sands, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2025
The country has protected its biodiversity where others have destroyed theirs, President Ali said in a BBC interview last year.
—Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 29 Mar. 2025
The tragedy, however, is that since the Saya de Malha Bank is mostly located in international waters, where few rules apply, its biodiversity is being systematically decimated by a huge fleet of industrial fishing ships that remain largely unchecked by government oversight.
—Ian Urbina, Los Angeles Times, 28 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for biodiversity
Cite this Entry
“Biodiversity.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biodiversity. Accessed 8 Apr. 2025.
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biodiversity
noun
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