2. variation in characteristics of species: a gradual variation in the characteristics of a plant or animal species that occurs when it is distributed over an area with differing environmental or geographic conditions
[Mid-20th century. < Greek klinein "to lean"]
clin·al adjective
cli·nal·ly adverb
Word History
The Indo-European word from which cline is ultimately derived, is also the ancestor of English clinic, decline, enclitic, incline, ladder, lean1, and recline.
