1. a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding. The species is the principal natural taxonomic unit, ranking below a genus and denoted by a Latin binomial, e.g. Homo sapiens.
▪ a group subordinate to a genus and containing individuals agreeing in some common attributes and called by a common name.
2. a kind or sort: "a species of invective at once tough and suave"
▪ used humorously to refer to people who share a characteristic or occupation: "a political species that is becoming more common, the environmental statesman"
▪ a particular kind of atom, molecule, ion, or particle: "a new molecular species"
3. the visible form of each of the elements of consecrated bread and wine in the Eucharist.
Word Originlate Middle English: from Latin, literally ‘appearance, form, beauty’, from specere ‘to look’.