Etymology: Middle English, from Latin, appearance, kind, species, from specere to look — more at spy
Date: 14th century
a. kind, sort
b. a class of individuals having common attributes and designated by a common name; specifically a logical division of a genus or more comprehensive class <confessing sins in species and in number> c. the human race ; human beings — often used with the <survival of the species in the nuclear age> d. (1) a category of biological classification ranking immediately below the genus or subgenus, comprising related organisms or populations potentially capable of interbreeding, and being designated by a binomial that consists of the name of a genus followed by a Latin or latinized uncapitalized noun or adjective agreeing grammatically with the genus name (2) an individual or kind belonging to a biological species e. a particular kind of atomic nucleus, atom, molecule, or ion 2. the consecrated eucharistic elements of the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Eucharist 3. a. a mental image; also a sensible object b. an object of thought correlative with a natural object II. adjective Date: 1899 belonging to a biological species as distinguished from a horticultural variety <a species rose>
New Collegiate Dictionary. 2001.