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Definition of "survival of the fittest" []

  • Natural selection conceived of as a struggle for life in which only those organisms best adapted to existing conditions are able to survive and reproduce. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "survival of the fittest" in a sentence
  • "The philosophy of the survival of the fittest does not soothe the class-conscious worker when he learns through his class literature that among the Italian pants-finishers of Chicago {9} the average weekly wage is $1.31, and the average number of weeks employed in the year is 27.85."
  • "In this latter case I have supposed that the survival of the fittest has come into play with female birds and kept the female dull-coloured."
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