zygote

See also: Zygote

English

WOTD – 22 May 2025

Etymology

A micrograph of a human zygote on the first day of its development.

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ζῠγωτός (zŭgōtós, “yoked”) + English -ote (suffix meaning ‘having [the thing to which it is attached]’). Ζῠγωτός (Zŭgōtós) is derived from ζῠγόω (zŭgóō, “to join or yoke together”) + -τός (-tós, suffix forming adjectives of possibility);^[1] and ζῠγόω (zŭgóō) from ζῠγόν (zŭgón, “yoke for joining animals; anything which joins two things together”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *yewg- (“to tie together, join, yoke”)) + -όω (-óō, suffix forming causative or factitive verbs). By surface analysis, zygo- +‎ -ote.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈzaɪɡəʊt/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈzaɪˌɡoʊt/
Audio (General American): (file)
Hyphenation: zyg‧ote

Noun

zygote (plural zygotes)

(cytology, also attributive) A eukaryotic cell formed from the fusion of two gametes (“reproductive cells”) during a fertilization process. [from late 19th c.]
Hyponyms: homozygote, heterozygote, merozygote, monozygote, parthenote, planozygote

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

→ Irish: siogót
→ Malay: zigot

Translations

eukaryotic cell formed from the fusion of two gametes during a fertilization process

Afrikaans: sigoot
Albanian: zigota
Arabic: زىجوت ? (zijut)
Aragonese: zigoto m
Armenian: զիգոտ (hy) (zigot)
Asturian: cigotu m
Azerbaijani: ziqot
Basque: zigoto m
Belarusian: зігота (zihóta)
Bengali: জাইগোট (jaigōṭ)
Bulgarian: зигота (zigota)
Catalan: zigot m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 合子 (zh) (hézǐ), 受精卵 (zh) (shòujīngluǎn)
Czech: zygota f
Danish: zygote c
Dutch: zygote (nl) m or f
Estonian: sügoot
Finnish: tsygootti (fi), hedelmöitynyt munasolu
French: zygote (fr) m
Galician: cigoto (gl) m
Georgian: ზიგოტა (ka) (zigoṭa)
German: Zygote (de) f
Greek: ζυγωτό (el) n (zygotó)
Hebrew: זִיגוֹטָה (he) f (zigóta)
Hindi: युग्मनज m (yugmanaj)
Hungarian: zigóta (hu)
Icelandic: okfruma f
Ido: zigoto (io)
Indonesian: zigot (id)
Irish: siogót m
Italian: zigote (it) m
Japanese: 接合子 (ja) (せつごうし, setsugōshi)
Kashubian: zygòta f
Kazakh: зигота (zigota), ұрықтанған жасуша (ūryqtanğan jasuşa)
Korean: 접합자(接合子) (ko) (jeophapja)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: zîgot f
Kyrgyz: зигота (zigota)
Latin: zygotum ? (New Latin)
Latvian: zigota ?
Lithuanian: zigota ?
Macedonian: зигот (zigot), зигоцит (zigocit)
Madurese: zigot
Malay:
Jawi: زيݢوت

Rumi: zigot
Malayalam: സിക്താണ്ഡം (ml) (siktāṇḍaṁ)
Maori: pūtau hua
Minangkabau: zigot
Norwegian:
Bokmål: zygote ?

Nynorsk: zygote ?
Occitan: zigòt ?
Oromo: miciraa
Persian: زیگوت (fa)
Polish: zygota (pl) f
Portuguese: zigoto (pt) m
Romanian: zigot (ro) m
Russian: зиго́та (ru) f (zigóta)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: зиго̀та f

Roman: zigòta (sh) f
Sindhi: ڳڀيل بيضو (g̠bhel beẓo)
Slovak: zygota (sk) f
Slovene: zigota (sl) ?
Spanish: zigoto (es) m, cigoto (es) m
Sundanese: zigot
Swedish: zygot (sv) c
Tagalog: punlog
Tajik: зигота (zigota)
Tamil: கருவணு (karuvaṇu), நுகம் (ta) (nukam)
Telugu: సంయుక్తబీజము (saṁyuktabījamu)
Thai: ไซโกต
Tibetan: འདུས་ཕུང ('dus phung, literally “collected mass, congeries”), སྨིན་པའི་ཕྲ་ཕུང (smin pa'i phra phung, literally “ripened cells”)
Turkish: zigot (tr)
Ukrainian: зиго́та f (zyhóta)
Urdu: لاقحہ ?
Uzbek: zigota
Vietnamese: hợp tử (合子)
Welsh: sygot m

References

^ “zygote, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “zygote, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from German Zygote, a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ζῠγωτός (zŭgōtós, “yoked”), from ζῠγόω (zŭgóō, “to join or yoke together”) + -τός (-tós, suffix forming adjectives of possibility). Ζῠγόω (Zŭgóō) is derived from ζῠγόν (zŭgón, “yoke for joining animals; anything which joins two things together”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *yewg- (“to tie together, join, yoke”)) + -όω (-óō, suffix forming causative or factitive verbs).