meiosis
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
Modern Latin, from Ancient Greek μείωσις (meiōsis, “a lessening”), from μειόω (meioō, “I lessen”), from μείων (meiōn, “less”).
Pronunciation [edit]
Noun [edit]
meiosis (countable and uncountable; plural meioses)
- (countable, rhetoric) A figure of speech whereby something is made to seem smaller or less important than it actually is.
- 1965, John Fowles, The Magus:
- I knew, with one of those secret knowledges that can exist between two people, that her suicide was a direct result of my having told her of my own attempt – I had told it with a curt meiosis that was meant to conceal depths; and she had called my bluff one final time.
- 1965, John Fowles, The Magus:
- (uncountable, cytology) Cell division of a diploid cell into four haploid cells, which develop to produce gametes.
Synonyms [edit]
- (cytology): reduction division
Antonyms [edit]
- (rhetoric): hyperbole, auxesis, litotes, paradiastole
- (cytology): mitosis
Meronyms [edit]
- (cytology): prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, reduction division, equation division
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
cell division
