Genus vs. Epithet — What's the Difference?

Genus (plural genera) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family.

An epithet (from Greek: ἐπίθετον, epitheton, neuter of ἐπίθετος, epithetos, "attributed, added") is a byname, or a descriptive term (word or phrase), accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature.

A principal taxonomic category that ranks above species and below family, and is denoted by a capitalized Latin name, e.g. Leo.

An adjective or phrase expressing a quality or attribute regarded as characteristic of the person or thing mentioned

(Biology) A taxonomic category ranking below a family and above a species and designating a group of species that are presumed to be closely related and usually exhibit similar characteristics. In a scientific name, the genus name is capitalized and italicized, for example, Ovis for sheep and related animals.

A term used to characterize a person or thing, such as rosy-fingered in rosy-fingered dawn or the Great in Catherine the Great.

(Logic) A class of objects divided into subordinate species having certain common attributes.

A term used as a descriptive substitute for the name or title of a person, such as The Great Emancipator for Abraham Lincoln.

A class, group, or kind with common attributes.

A disparaging or abusive word or phrase.

A category in the classification of organisms, ranking below family (Lat. familia) and above species.

(Biology) A word in the scientific name of an organism following the name of the genus and denoting a species, subspecies, variety, or cultivar, as sativa in Lactuca sativa.

A taxon at this rank.

A term used to characterize a person or thing.

A group with common attributes.

(mythology) A term used as a qualifier of the name of a deity in order to designate said deity in a particular aspect or role.

A natural number representing any of several related measures of the complexity of a given manifold or graph.

A term used as a descriptive substitute for the name or title of a person.

(semantics) Within a definition, a broader category of the defined concept.

One of many formulaic words or phrases used in the Iliad and Odyssey to characterize a person, a group of people, or a thing.

(music) A type of tuning or intonation, used within an Ancient Greek tetrachord.

An abusive or contemptuous word or phrase.

A class of objects divided into several subordinate species; a class more extensive than a species; a precisely defined and exactly divided class; one of the five predicable conceptions, or sorts of terms.

(taxonomy) A word in the scientific name of a taxon following the name of the genus or species. This applies only to formal names of plants, fungi and bacteria. In formal names of animals the corresponding term is the specific name.

An assemblage of species, having so many fundamental points of structure in common, that in the judgment of competent scientists, they may receive a common substantive name. A genus is not necessarily the lowest definable group of species, for it may often be divided into several subgenera. In proportion as its definition is exact, it is natural genus; if its definition can not be made clear, it is more or less an artificial genus.

(transitive) To term; to refer to as.

A general kind of something;

An adjective expressing some quality, attribute, or relation, that is properly or specially appropriate to a person or thing; as, a just man; a verdant lawn.

(biology) taxonomic group containing one or more species

Term; expression; phrase.

To describe by an epithet.

A defamatory or abusive word or phrase;

Descriptive word or phrase