How to Use inbreeding in a Sentence

inbreeding

noun
  • This likely led to inbreeding, which would’ve caused even more problems.
    Daisy Hernandez, Popular Mechanics, 12 Feb. 2020
  • Turns out both families are prone to such fits as the result of inbreeding.
    Andy Hoglund, EW.com, 8 May 2022
  • The rise of the feral hog has been a steady process with inbreeding of various breeds of swine.
    Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 21 Mar. 2023
  • The first picks had died, and all the familial inbreeding made the next choice complex.
    Nick Romano, EW.com, 13 July 2022
  • His decline demonstrates one problem with all this inbreeding.
    Maureen O’Hagan, Quartz, 24 June 2019
  • Over time, this may also lead to more inbreeding and a lack of genetic variation.
    Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Nov. 2023
  • That inbreeding has resulted in a species less able to adapt to the changing conditions.
    David McKenzie and Brent Swails, CNN, 28 Oct. 2019
  • Because the gene pool is so small, white tigers are only produced through inbreeding, which can lead to health problems for the tigers.
    Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 7 July 2017
  • Lions to the south can’t get out and lions to the north can’t get in, forcing isolation and inbreeding.
    Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2024
  • Today, the animals are alive but not well, due to years of isolation and inbreeding.
    Justin Chang, chicagotribune.com, 13 Nov. 2019
  • White tigers, which are purposely bred for their coloration, are prone to a number of health issues due to inbreeding.
    BostonGlobe.com, 20 Sep. 2019
  • Because there is clearly some inbreeding happening that is bound to cause problems.
    Kathleen Walsh, Vulture, 26 Jan. 2025
  • The team was also just looking for the most extreme examples of human inbreeding.
    Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 22 Dec. 2022
  • But rather than slowing down, the pace of inbreeding has accelerated.
    Jo Craven McGinty, WSJ, 28 May 2021
  • But a termite colony is no more related than a human family (at least until the inbreeding starts).
    Elizabeth Preston, New York Times, 5 May 2023
  • Plagued by years of inbreeding, researchers fear captive singing dogs could soon have trouble reproducing.
    Michael Price, Science | AAAS, 31 Aug. 2020
  • Some worried that it would be used to study taboo or stigmatizing topics, such as inbreeding and alcoholism.
    Oscar Schwartz, Washington Post, 23 Nov. 2020
  • The isolation can lead to inbreeding, which dilutes the cats’ gene pool and can lead to health and reproductive problems.
    Peter Fimrite, SFChronicle.com, 26 Nov. 2019
  • Less habitat for the cats also has the potential to increase the likelihood of inbreeding.
    Jake Frederico, The Arizona Republic, 13 Dec. 2022
  • Some of the westside cats are showing dangerous signs of inbreeding, such as kinked tails and other genetic problems.
    sacbee, 3 Nov. 2017
  • By just releasing the pups, there's a lag time for potential inbreeding and a lower likelihood of survival.
    Andrew Nicla, azcentral, 23 June 2019
  • Of all the samples, only the man whose bones were laid to rest in the heart of Newgrange showed the genetic markers of extreme inbreeding.
    Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 June 2020
  • Breeding of bulldogs, which are known to have many health problems because of inbreeding and face shape, was recently banned in Norway.
    Grace Tooheystaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 12 Sep. 2022
  • More allegations came out claiming many of his animals were deformed due to inbreeding and not giving the moms enough healthy food while pregnant.
    Gina Vaynshteyn, refinery29.com, 24 Mar. 2020
  • But another threat to the kakapo is a lack of genetic diversity, because of low numbers and inbreeding.
    The Economist, 29 Aug. 2019
  • But the genetics of Roopkund B, showing no sign of isolation or inbreeding, ruled this out, too.
    Douglas Preston, The New Yorker, 7 Dec. 2020
  • This has put them at especially high risk of inbreeding as their numbers once again dwindle in the wild due to habitat fragmentation and poaching.
    Jackson Landers, Smithsonian, 7 Apr. 2017
  • In any case, one possibility is that the Targaryen lineage may have purged their genetic load through inbreeding.
    Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 27 Mar. 2012
  • Despite the inbreeding, however, there was little in the way of genetic variants that are exclusive to a single breed.
    John Timmer, Ars Technica, 28 Apr. 2022
  • The levels of inbreeding found in the data are higher than what would be considered safe for wild animal populations and humans.
    Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Dec. 2021

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

Last Updated: