Homogenous vs Homogeneous

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Homogenous vs Homogeneous
At first glance, the difference in spelling between ‘homogeneous’ and ‘homogenous’ would appear to bear the same justification as the difference between spellings in words like colour-color or aluminium-aluminum.

Although the words mean the same, there is a difference in the manner that they are spelled owing to the country in which they are being used, namely in Britain or in America. On applying the same logic, it would turn out that ‘homogeneous’ is the British way of spelling the word while ‘homogenous’ is the American version of the same word.

However, there is a sound logic behind the difference in spelling rather than just the type of English and it pertains to their respective meanings. Homogeneous refers to something that is characterised by uniform composition or structure or displays similar nature throughout. Homogenous is a biological term that refers to species that share a common ancestry or origin.

Hence, while ‘homogeneous’ is used mostly in chemistry to refer to solutions, mixtures and so on, homogenous is common in the biological arena wherein determination of species is an important aspect.

While ‘homogeneous’ has been around since time immemorial, the word ‘homogenous’ came into being in 1870, the credit for having coined it belonging to the great Charles Darwin while writing his theory ‘Origin of Species’. Substitution of one for the other occurred for the first time in 1956 wherein ‘homogeneous’ was replaced by ‘homogenous’ as a variation which meant the same but was spelled differently.

Since then, the two words have been used interchangeably and this has given rise to the confusion as to which is the correct spelling. It is only within the realms of academic and scientific circles that the interchangeability between them is not tolerated because it implies a complete turnaround of their meanings.

For a layman, even if you spell ‘homogeneous’ as ‘homogenous’, you are likely to get away with it given the liberal nature of English used on the Internet. But if you are a stickler for rules and are particular about your English, then you might as well stick to ‘homogeneous’ to refer to uniformity and ‘homogenous’ if you are dwelling on biology.

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