1. relating to or based on overall similarity in appearance or characteristics rather than evolutionary relationships
Usage: biology; taxonomy

Examples

• The phenetic classification grouped organisms by their physical similarities.
• Phenetic analysis focuses on observable traits rather than genetic relationships.
• Traditional phenetic methods relied heavily on morphological characteristics.
• The phenetic approach to taxonomy was popular before molecular techniques emerged.
• Scientists used phenetic clustering to organize species by shared features.
• Phenetic classification sometimes groups unrelated species that look similar.