survival of the fittest en · NOUN
Etymology
Coined by English philosopher and political theorist Herbert Spencer in 1864 after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, and used by Darwin himself in subsequent editions of that work. In the expression, fittest means “best fitted to the environment”, not “strongest, fastest, or most physically fit”.
Meanings
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(qualifier:evolutionary theory, uncountable) Natural selection.
Welcome to this urban life / Welcome to my city / Survival of the fittest / Is never very pretty
2025, Suzanne Vega, Gerry Leonard, “Rats”, in Flying with Angels:Slow though the process of selection may be, if feeble man can do much by artificial selection, I can see no limit to the amount of change, to the beauty and complexity of the coadaptations between all organic beings, one with another and with their physical conditions of life, which may have been effected in the long course of time through nature's power of selection, that is by the survival of the fittest.
1872, Charles Darwin, “Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest”, in The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], 6th edition, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 85:
Relateds
Translations (22)
ja 適者生存 (natural selection) · pt sobrevivência do mais apto (natural selection) · ka ყველაზე შეგუებულთა გადარჩენა (natural selection) · ka ყველაზე უკეთ შეგუებულთა გადარჩენა (natural selection) · cmn 最適者生存 /最适者生存 (natural selection) · ka ყველაზე შეგუებული ჯიშების გადარჩენა (natural selection) · cmn 弱肉強食 /弱肉强食 (natural selection) · tl matira matibay (natural selection) · no den sterkeste overlever (natural selection) · es supervivencia del más apto (natural selection) · fr survie du plus apte (natural selection) · fi taistelu olemassaolosta (natural selection) · ga seasamh na dtréan (natural selection) · ka ყველაზე მეტად შეგუებულთა გადარჩენა (natural selection) · ru выжива́ние сильне́йших (natural selection) · de Überleben der Bestangepassten (natural selection) · cmn 適者生存 /适者生存 (natural selection) · fi luonnonvalinta (natural selection) · pt sobrevivência do mais forte (natural selection) · pl przetrwanie najsilniejszych (natural selection) · tl lighay ng pinakaangkop (natural selection) · lv spēcīgāko izdzīvošana (natural selection)
wikipedia: Charles Darwin · wikipedia: On the Origin of Species