ovum

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ōvum (“egg”). Cognate with Spanish huevo (“egg”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊ.vəm/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈoʊ.vəm/

Noun

ovum (plural ova)

1. (cytology) The female gamete in animals; the egg cell.

Synonyms

• megagamete

Hypernyms

• gamete

Coordinate terms

• spermatozoon

Related terms

Terms related to ovum

• oval
• Ovaltine
• ovary

• ovate
• oviparous
• ovoid

• ovo-lacto-vegetarian
• ovulate

Translations

gamete

• Albanian: vezë (sq) f, ovum m
• Arabic: بُيَيْضَة‎‎ f (buyayḍa), بُوَيْضَة‎‎ f (buwayḍa)
• Armenian: ձվաբջիջ (hy) (jvabǰiǰ)
• Azerbaijani: yumurta (az)
• Belarusian: яйцакле́тка f (jajcakljétka)
• Bengali: ডিম্ব (ḍimb)
• Bulgarian: яйцекле́тка f (jajceklétka)
• Catalan: òvul
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 卵子 (zh) (luǎnzǐ), 卵 (zh) (luǎn)

• Czech: vajíčko (cs) n
• Danish: ægcelle c
• Dutch: eicel (nl) m, f
• Estonian: munarakk
• Finnish: munasolu (fi)
• French: ovule (fr) m
• Georgian: კვერცხუჯრედი (ḳvercxuǯredi)
• German: Eizelle (de) f, Ovum (de) n
• Greek: ωάριο (el) n (oário)
• Hebrew: בֵּיצִית‎‎ (he) f (beitsit)
• Hindi: डिम्ब (hi) m (ḍimb)
• Hungarian: pete (hu)
• Icelandic: eggfruma f, egg (is) n
• Irish: ubhán m
• Italian: ovulo (it) m
• Japanese: 卵 (ja) (らん, ran), 卵子 (ja) (らんし, ranshi)
• Kazakh: аналық жасуша (analıq jaswşa), ұрық жасуша (urıq jaswşa)
• Korean: 난자 (ko) (nanja) (卵子 (ko)), 란자 (ranja) (North Korea)

• Kyrgyz: урук клеткасы (uruk kletkası), энелик клетка (enelik kletka)
• Latvian: olšūna f
• Lithuanian: kiaušialąstė f
• Macedonian: јајце клетка f (jajce kletka)
• Malay: ovum

  Jawi: اوۏوم‎‎

• Marathi: अंड (aṇḍ), अंडकोश (aṇḍkoś)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: eggcelle m, f

• Persian: تخمک‎‎ (fa) (toxmak)
• Polish: jajo (pl) n, komórka jajowa f
• Portuguese: óvulo (pt) m
• Romanian: ovul (ro) n
• Russian: яйцекле́тка (ru) f (jajceklétka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: јајашце n

  Roman: jajašce (sh) n

• Slovak: vajíčko n, vajcová bunka f
• Slovene: jajčece (sl) n
• Spanish: óvulo (es) m
• Swedish: äggcell (sv) c
• Tagalog: itlog (tl)
• Tajik: тухмҳуҷайра (tuxmhujayra)
• Thai: เซลล์ไข่ (seel-kài)
• Turkish: yumurta (tr), yumurta hücresi
• Ukrainian: яйцекліти́на (uk) f (jajceklitýna)
• Uzbek: tuxumhujayra, tuxum (uz)
• Vietnamese: trứng (vi), noãn (vi)

See also

• oocyte

---

Japanese

Romanization

ovum

1. Rōmaji transcription of おゔむ
2. Rōmaji transcription of オヴム

---

Latin

ōva gallīnārum (hens' eggs).

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *ōwom, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”), likely a derivative of *h₂éwis (“bird”) (whence also Latin avis (“bird”)). Cognates include Ancient Greek ᾠόν (ōión), Old Church Slavonic аице (aice), Persian خایه‎ (ḵẖāya), Old Norse egg, Old English ǣġ.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈoː.wum/, [ˈoː.wũ]

Noun

ōvum n (genitive ōvī); second declension

1. egg

Inflection

Second declension.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ōvum	ōva
Genitive	ōvī	ōvōrum
Dative	ōvō	ōvīs
Accusative	ōvum	ōva
Ablative	ōvō	ōvīs
Vocative	ōvum	ōva

Derived terms

• ōvātus
• ōvicō
• ōviparus

Descendants

• Aragonese: güego
• Dalmatian: juf
• English ovum
• Esperanto: ovo
  • Ido: ovo
• Franco-Provençal: uef
• Interlingua: ovo
• Italian: uovo
• Lombard: öv
• Mozarabic óbgo
• Old French: oef, of
  • Middle French: œuf
    • French: œuf
  • Norman: oeu
  • Picard: uë
  • Walloon: oû

• Old Leonese:
  • Asturian: güevu
  • Leonese: guevu
  • Mirandese: uobo
• Old Portuguese: ovo
  • Galician: ovo
  • Portuguese: ovo, ova
• Old Occitan:
  • Catalan: ou
  • Occitan: ueu, uòu
• Old Spanish: hueuo, ueuo
  • Ladino: guevo
  • Spanish: huevo, hueva
    • Papiamentu: webu

• Proto-Romanian:
  • Aromanian: ou
  • Romanian: ou
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: ûf, ûv
  • Romansch: ov, öv, iev
• Sardinian: obu
  • Campidanese: ou
• Sicilian: uòvu, ou, ovu
• Venetian: óvo

References

• ovum in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ovum in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ovum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• ovum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) from beginning to end: ab ovo usque ad mala (proverb.)
    
• ovum in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

---

Malay

Alternative forms

• اوۏوم‎

Etymology

Borrowed from English ovum, from Latin ōvum, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm, likely a derivative of *h₂éwis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ovom]
• Rhymes: -vom, -om

Noun

ovum (Jawi spelling اوۏوم, plural ovum-ovum)

1. (cytology) ovum (gamete)