Did you know?

The scientific theories of Jules Verne's bold French adventurer, Michel Ardan, might have been a bit flawed (it's more accurate to classify the solar system as "heterogenous" - that is, consisting of dissimilar ingredients or constituents), but his use of the English word homogeneous was perfectly correct. Homogeneous, which derives from the Greek roots homos, meaning "same," and genos, meaning "kind," has been used in English since the mid-1600s. The similar word homogenous (originally created for the science of genetics and used with the meaning "of, relating to, or derived from another individual of the same species") can also be a synonym of homogeneous. The words need not be used exclusively in scientific contexts - one can speak of, for example, "a homogenous/homogeneous community."

Examples of homogeneous in a Sentence

In their natural state, mountains of this type are almost entirely covered by dense forest. The wooded landscape is very uniform, lacking in contrast, and any disturbance of the homogeneous green blanket is very obvious … — John Crowley, Focus on Geography, Winter 2007 One odd side effect is that, during the last 20 years, the formerly homogeneous, rather stodgy world of academic criticism has diversified into an incoherent mob of competing factions. — Walter Kendrick, New York Times Book Review, 24 Dec. 1995 The Benedictine convents for women, which had begun to be founded soon after Benedict's day, became particularly homogeneous in their social composition. The nuns of the ninth and tenth centuries were all high-born ladies, and it was almost impossible to be admitted to these convents without being a widowed or maiden relative of an important lord. — Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages, 1993 a fairly homogeneous collection of examples

Recent Examples on the Web Using Shang-Chi and Black Panther as models from homogeneous cultures to rival, contrast with, and outwit heterogeneous American culture is a foolhardy errand that can only please a Hollywood-CCP alliance. — Armond White, National Review, 8 Sep. 2021 Beginning in 1895, this impasse began to be broken when physicist John Perry, a former assistant of Kelvin's, challenged the latter's assumption that the Earth was a rigid and homogeneous body, saying there was little evidence to support it. — Mano Singham, Scientific American, 5 Sep. 2021 The ethnically-homogeneous Asian nation has a complicated stance on refugees, with other asylum seekers facing discrimination from citizens and the government in recent years. — Washington Post, 27 Aug. 2021 Districts based on equal numbers of eligible voters would generally move political power away from cities and toward older and more homogeneous rural areas that tend to vote for Republicans. — New York Times, 12 Aug. 2021 Even as America’s major metropolitan regions become more diverse, the country has begun to resegregate into more racially homogeneous neighborhoods. — Harry Bruinius, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 Aug. 2021 This results in a homogeneous temperature in the cellar and stocking areas throughout the year, limiting energy consumption for air conditioning and heat pumps. — John Mariani, Forbes, 25 June 2021 Her emergence as a top tennis player has challenged public attitudes about identity in a homogeneous culture that is being pushed to change. — Andrew Dampf, orlandosentinel.com, 24 July 2021 Her emergence as a top tennis player has challenged public attitudes about identity in a homogeneous culture that is being pushed to change. — Andrew Dampf, ajc, 23 July 2021

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'homogeneous.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.