How to Use genus in a Sentence

genus

noun
  • Colors vary from genus to genus.
    — Clarence Schmidt, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 May 2026
  • Whale sharks, the largest of the genus, can reach up to 33 feet.
    — Chris Ciaccia, Fox News, 24 Sep. 2018
  • Neotrogla is a genus of bark lice native to Brazil.
    — Elizabeth Kolbert, New Yorker, 22 June 2026
  • Cherries are a beloved stone fruit of many plants in the Prunus genus.
    — Lauren Panoff, Mph, Rd, Verywell Health, 9 Jan. 2025
  • Most species in the Artemisia genus don’t like being pruned in the fall.
    — Marie Iannotti, The Spruce, 9 May 2026
  • Death cap mushrooms are part of the Amanita genus.
    — Sacbee.com, 1 June 2026
  • The genus is best described as the family the plant is part of.
    — Chris McKeown, The Enquirer, 20 Aug. 2022
  • Its head is also much larger than other species in the genus.
    — Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 30 Nov. 2024
  • And few are more distinct than those in the genus Leptonetela.
    — Jack Tamisiea, Scientific American, 20 Dec. 2023
  • Malvaviscus is the genus of this old-fashioned pass-along plant.
    — Arkansas Online, 22 Aug. 2025
  • Within the genus are deep reds, bright pinks, whites and bicolors.
    — Tom MacCubbin, OrlandoSentinel.com, 7 June 2017
  • All names have to have a combination of a genus name, which comes first, and a species name.
    — Lauren M. Johnson, CNN, 1 July 2019
  • Each envelope had the name of a cactus genus written on the front.
    — Zoë Schlanger, Quartz, 3 July 2019
  • All true lilies grow from bulbs and are members of the genus Lilium.
    — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 23 Jan. 2025
  • Botanists know them as a genus of flowering plants in the arum family.
    — 1843, 2 July 2020
  • The genus name Prunus is from the Latin, meaning plum or cherry.
    — Earl Nickel, San Francisco Chronicle, 23 Feb. 2018
  • Coleus is a genus of stunning foliage plants in the mint family.
    — Andy Wilcox, Better Homes & Gardens, 21 July 2024
  • Ginseng comes from the root of several plant species in the Panax genus.
    — Ann Pietrangelo, Verywell Health, 30 May 2026
  • But the botanical genus Cannabis is more than bongs and brownies.
    — Erin Blakemore, Washington Post, 10 Sep. 2017
  • These shrubs belong to the same genus and have similar pruning times.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 5 Oct. 2025
  • The health effects are dependent on the genus, species and strain of the microbe.
    — Valerie Agyeman, Good Housekeeping, 22 Nov. 2022
  • Devil's claw is the name for the Harpagophytum genus (group) of plants.
    — Verywell Health, 21 Feb. 2023
  • Even within this genus, there’s more diversity than meets the eye.
    — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 16 Jan. 2026
  • While Alaskapox belongs to the same genus as smallpox, the two appear to share few traits.
    — Annie Berman, Anchorage Daily News, 14 Sep. 2021
  • The genus of spiders known as Ariamnes has always been known to have a few tricks up its sleeve.
    — Julissa Treviño, Smithsonian, 12 Mar. 2018
  • For the record, the dinner-only eatery was named after the genus of a species of six birds of paradise.
    — Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 June 2023
  • In fact, the Myristica genus is made up of more than 100 species.
    — Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 16 Aug. 2025
  • The garden rhubarb with which those strawberry-rhubarb pies are made is one plant of the genus Rheum.
    — John E. McIntyre, baltimoresun.com, 19 June 2018
  • The genus has been described as containing up to 600 species.
    — Janet Carson, Arkansas Online, 9 Aug. 2020
  • The genus of the fungus differs depending on the tree or plant attacked.
    — Debbie Arrington, sacbee, 8 Dec. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'genus.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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