vicariance
noun
vicariance is a noun meaning “The separation of a group of organisms by a geographic barrier, resulting in differentiation of the original group into new varieties or species” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled V-I-C-A-R-I-A-N-C-E, and it appears about once in every 54 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of vicariance is vicariances.
What does vicariance mean?
noun
- 1
The separation of a group of organisms by a geographic barrier, resulting in differentiation of the original group into new varieties or species.
- 2
The geological event which produces such a barrier (volcano, earthquake, etc)
- 3
colloquialThe act of experiencing an event by proxy through an empathic link with the person who is experiencing the event firsthand.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of vicariance
- vicariances plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is vicariance?
Vicariance appears about once in every 54 million words in written English, the 228,409th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Where does vicariance come from?
From vicariant + -ance.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).