In biology, a genus (plural: genera) is a taxonomic unit (a taxon) used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. In addition, genus (not countable, no plural) is a taxonomic rank in the hierarchy (thus "a genus" is a taxon at the rank of genus).
The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender"[1] (plurals: genera), cognate with Greek: γένος - genos, "race, stock, kin"[2].
Other well-known taxonomic ranks are: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, and species, with genus fitting between family and species. Like for the other well-known taxonomic ranks, mentioned above, there can be an immediately lower rank, indicated by the prefix sub-, in this case subgenus (plural subgenera). The most important taxonomic unit below the genus is the species, which is the basic rank.
The composition of each genus is determined by a taxonomist, but often there is no exact agreement, with different taxonomists each taking a different position. There are no hard rules that a taxonomist needs to follow in describing a genus, but see below for some rules of thumb.low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms, and also any taxonomic unit (taxon) of that rank. The binomial name of every species is formed from a genus name (with a capital initial), followed by the species name, both normally written in italics.
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