En biología y específicamente en genética, se denomina fenotipo a la expresión del genotipo en función de un determinado ambiente. Los rasgos fenotípicos cuentan con rasgos tanto físicos como conductuales. Es importante destacar que el fenotipo no puede definirse exclusivamente como la "manifestación visible" del genotipo, pues a veces las características que se estudian no son visibles en el individuo, como es el caso de la presencia de una enzima. Un fenotipo es cualquier característica o rasgo observable de un organismo, como su morfología, desarrollo, propiedades bioquímicas, fisiología y comportamiento. La diferencia entre genotipo y fenotipo es que el genotipo se puede distinguir observando el ADN y el fenotipo puede conocerse por medio de la observación de la apariencia externa de un organismo.

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A phenotype (from Greek phainein, meaning "to show", and typos, meaning "type") is the composite of an organism's observable characteristics or traits, such as its morphology, development, biochemical or physiological properties, phenology, behavior, and products of behavior (such as a bird's nest). A phenotype results from the expression of an organism's genes as well as the influence of environmental factors and the interactions between the two. When two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species, the species is called polymorph. The genotype of an organism is the inherited instructions it carries within its genome. This genotype-phenotype distinction was proposed by Wilhelm Johannsen in 1911 to make clear the difference between an organism's heredity and what that heredity produces. The distinction is similar to that proposed by August Weismann, who distinguished between germ plasm (heredity) and somatic cells (the body). The genotype-phenotype distinction should not be confused with Francis Crick's central dogma of molecular biology, which is a statement about the directionality of molecular sequential information flowing from DNA to protein, and not the reverse. Richard Dawkins in 1978 and then again in his 1982 book The Extended Phenotype suggested that bird nests and other built structures such as caddis fly larvae cases and beaver dams can be considered as "extended phenotypes".

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