Scrabble?! ASSORTATIVE

Definitions of ASSORTATIVE in various dictionaries:

Assortative mating is a mating pattern and a form of sexual selection in which individuals with similar phenotypes mate with one another more frequently than would be expected under a random mating pattern. Some examples of similar phenotypes are body size, skin coloration/pigmentation, and age. Assortative mating, also referred to as positive assortative mating or homogamy, can increase genetic relatedness within the family. Assortative mating is the inverse of disassortative mating (also known as negative assortative mating or heterogamy), in which individuals with dissimilar genotypes and/or phenotypes mate with one another more frequently than would be expected under random mating. Disassortative mating reduces the genetic similarities within the family. Positive assortative mating occurs more frequently than negative assortative mating. In both cases, the nonrandom mating pattern result in a typical deviation from the Hardy–Weinberg principle (which states that genotype frequencies in a population will remain constant from generation to generation in the absence of other evolutionary influences, such as "mate choice" in this case).