Definition: Conservation
From New World Encyclopedia
Etymology
From Old French conserver, from Latin conservare (to keep, preserve). By surface analysis, conserve + -ation.
Noun
conservation (countable and uncountable, plural conservations)
- The act of preserving, guarding, or protecting; the keeping (of a thing) in a safe or entire state; preservation.
- Wise use of natural resources.
- (biology) The discipline concerned with protection of biodiversity, the environment, and natural resources.
- (biology) Genes and associated characteristics of biological organisms that are unchanged by evolution, for example similar or identical nucleic acid sequences or proteins in different species descended from a common ancestor.
- (culture) The protection and care of cultural heritage, including artwork and architecture, as well as historical and archaeological artifacts.
- (physics) lack of change in a measurable property of an isolated physical system (conservation of energy, mass, momentum, electric charge, subatomic particles, and fundamental symmetries).
Derived terms
- anticonservation
- anticonservationist
- conservational
- conservation biology
- conservation law
- conservation of energy
- conservation of mass
- law of conservation of mass
- soil conservation
Credits
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