meiosis

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Ancient Greek μείωσις (meíōsis, “a lessening”), from μειόω (meióō, “I lessen”), from μείων (meíōn, “less”). And, for the biological sense: Coined by British biologists John Bretland Farmer John Edmund Sharrock Moore in 1905 as maiosis in a paper in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Science, with the spelling corrected on etymological grounds later that year. Doublet of miosis.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

Examples (rhetoric)

meiosis (countable and uncountable, plural meioses)

  1. (countable, uncountable, rhetoric) A figure of speech whereby something is made to seem smaller or less important than it actually is.
    Synonym: understatement
    Antonyms: hyperbole, overstatement, exaggeration, auxesis
    Hyponym: litotes
    • 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.
  2. (usually uncountable, cytology) Cell division of a diploid cell into four haploid cells, which develop to produce gametes.
    Synonym: reduction division
    Antonym: mitosis
    Meronyms: prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, reduction division, equation division

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia es

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Ancient Greek μείωσις (meíōsis).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /meˈjosis/ [meˈjo.sis]
  • Rhymes: -osis
  • Syllabification: me‧io‧sis

Noun[edit]

meiosis f (plural meiosis)

  1. (biology) meiosis

Further reading[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=meiosis&oldid=76707871"