See Also: Population(medicine)
population(dictionary)
Population(money)
population(dictionary)
population characteristics(medicine)
genetics, population(medicine)
Zero Population Growth(money)
urban population(medicine)
topotypical population(medicine)
suburban population(medicine)

population (iou)



population noun. L16.
[Late Latin populatio(n-), formed as POPULATE verb: see -ATION.]
A peopled or inhabited place. L16-E17.
a. The extent to which a place is populated or inhabited; the collective inhabitants of a country, town, area, etc.; a body of inhabitants. E17.
Anthony Huxley A world population where life expectancy is continuously increasing. South African Panorama By 1986..the town of Richards Bay had a population of nearly 20 000. transf.: British Medical Bulletin The effect of radiation on proliferating cell populations.
b. The general body of inmates in a prison, rehabilitation centre, etc., as distinct from those in special or restricted categories or units. Freq. in in population. Chiefly US. M20.
The action or process of supplying with inhabitants; increase of inhabitants. L18.
a. Statistics. A (real or hypothetical) totality of objects or individuals under consideration, of which samples are taken for analysis. L19.
b. Genetics. A group of animals, plants, or humans, among whose members interbreeding occurs. L19.
c. Physics. The (number of) atoms or subatomic particles that occupy any particular energy state. M20.
Astronomy. Each of three (orig. two) groups into which stars can be approximately divided on the basis of their manner of formation (see below). M20.
population I stars formed from the debris of other stars. population II stars coeval with their galaxy. population III stars originating before the period of galaxy-formation.
Comb.: population biology the branch of science that deals statistically with biological populations; population curve a graph showing the variation of population with time; population explosion a rapid or sudden marked increase in the size of a population; population genetics the branch of science that deals statistically with the genetics of biological populations; population inversion: see INVERSION 16; population pyramid a roughly triangular broad-based figure, the width of which indicates numbers and the height of which indicates age.
populational adjective L19.
populationist noun a person who holds a theory about population, a demographer M19.