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Glite Dictionary
genus Ursus

genus Ursus

9.7
A group of bears that includes brown and polar bears
  • noun
  • /ˈdʒɛnəs ˈɜːrsəs/
  • Specialized
translation icon : género Ursus
  • The genus Ursus includes well-known species such as the brown bear and the polar bear.

Examples

  • Modern taxonomists debate which bears to assign to the genus Ursus.

  • Fossils from the genus Ursus provide insight into the evolution of present-day bears.

  • The genus Ursus includes several species of bears.

  • Did you know that genus Ursus is classified under the family Ursidae?

  • The genus Ursus includes well-known species such as the brown bear and the polar bear.

  • Fossils from the genus Ursus provide insight into the evolution of present-day bears.

  • Modern taxonomists debate which bears to assign to the genus Ursus.

Synonyms

Ursus
vsgenus Ursus
  • Specialized
1 9.3

A group of bears that includes brown and polar bears

is the same meaning but includes the taxonomic label before the name

Surface Forms

genus Ursus singular
genera Ursus plural

Morphology

genus + Ursus

This phrase is fully compositional: 'genus' names a biological rank and 'Ursus' is the proper name of that genus, so together they simply mean the taxonomic genus called Ursus (the bear genus). The construction is non-idiomatic and follows a common noun + name pattern found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the meaning.

Etymology

Genus Ursus comes from Latin: genus means a group and Ursus means 'bear'. So genus Ursus literally names a group of bears, which is why the name refers to that bear group in science today.