acquired characteristic

noun

1. a characteristic of an organism that results from increased use or disuse of an organ or the effects of the environment and cannot be inheritedSee also Lamarckism

1. A nonhereditary change of function or structure in a plant or animal made in response to the environment. Acquired characteristics include bodily changes brought about by disease or by repeated use or disuse of a body part (as in the building or atrophy of muscle tissue). The heritability of acquired characteristics was advocated by certain biological theorists like Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and rejected by Charles Darwin in his formulation of the theory of evolution.