meiosis
English
Etymology
From Ancient Greek μείωσις (meíōsis, “a lessening”), from μειόω (meióō, “I lessen”), from μείων (meíōn, “less”). Coined by British biologists John Bretland Farmer and John Edmund Sharrock Moore in 1905 as maiosis in an paper in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Science, with the spelling corrected on etymological grounds later that year.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /maɪˈəʊsɪs/
Audio (US): (file) - Homophone: miosis
- Rhymes: -əʊsɪs
Noun
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; understatement.
- 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
- (rhetoric): See understatement
- (cytology): reduction division
Antonyms
Meronyms
- (cytology): prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, reduction division, equation division
Derived terms
Translations
cell division
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See also
Spanish
Etymology
From Ancient Greek μείωσις (meíōsis).
Noun
meiosis f (plural meiosis)
Further reading
- “meiosis”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Categories:
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms coined by John Bretland Farmer
- English coinages
- English terms coined by John Edmund Sharrock Moore
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English terms with homophones
- Rhymes:English/əʊsɪs
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- en:Rhetoric
- en:Cytology
- English words not following the I before E except after C rule
- en:Figures of speech
- Spanish terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish feminine nouns
- es:Biology