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Definition

noun

(1) (biology) A biological condition in which a competing variant is increasing in frequency relative to other competing variants in a population.

(2) A relative measure of reproductive success of an organism in passing its genes to the next generation.

(3) The relative ability of an individual (or population) to survive, reproduce and propagate genes in an environment.

(4) The state or quality of being fit, e.g. physically or mentally; being in shape, good health or well-being.

(5) The capability to perform a function.

Supplement

In biology, Darwinian fitness or simply fitness of a biological trait describes how successful an organism has been at passing on its genes. The more likely that an individual is able to survive and live longer to reproduce, the higher is the fitness of that individual.

There are two ways through which fitness can be measured:

• absolute fitness
• relative fitness