系統
Meanings
lineage; ancestry; family line
Used for descent or a line of ancestry; often appears with expressions like 系統を引く, meaning to come from or inherit a particular line.
He descends from an old samurai family line.
group; family; school; affiliation
Classifies things or people into a related family, category, party, or school of thought. Common with colors, languages, academic traditions, political tendencies, and similar groupings.
If you use colors from the same family, the room will feel unified.
This idea belongs to the liberal school of thought.
evolutionary relationship; phylogenetic closeness
Biological use for how closely organisms or species are related in evolutionary lineage.
These two species are closely related evolutionarily.
genetic lineage; strain; population with a common ancestor
Technical genetics and microbiology use for a strain or population sharing a common ancestor, such as a mouse strain, bacterial strain, or viral lineage.
We conducted the experiment using mice of the same strain.
We analyzed the DNA to examine the strain of this bacterium.
Usage patterns
- 〈事〉の系統を引くto come from a certain line or inherit a trait from
She comes from a line of painters.
- 〈物〉系統に属するto belong to a certain family or category
This language belongs to the Uralic family.
- 〈物〉系統が故障するfor a system (e.g. electrical, communication) to break down
The electrical system malfunctioned, causing a blackout.
- 〈物〉の系統をたどるto trace an evolutionary or ancestral lineage
We can trace the evolutionary lineage from this fossil.