A mutation is a change in the genetic material (DNA) of a living thing, which can alter how it looks or functions. Mutations happen naturally and can be harmful, helpful, or have no noticeable effect.
From Latin *mutatio* “a changing,” from *mutare* “to change, exchange.” The biological sense developed in the 19th–20th centuries as scientists began to understand heredity and DNA.
In everyday speech, mutation sounds scary, but in biology it’s simply how new traits enter a population. Without mutations, evolution would grind to a halt—there’d be nothing new for natural selection to work on. Even your own body constantly accumulates tiny mutations as cells divide.
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