meiosis

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word meiosis. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word meiosis, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say meiosis in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word meiosis you have here. The definition of the word meiosis will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofmeiosis, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

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

Noun

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

Translations

Further reading

Spanish

Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia es

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek μείωσις (meíōsis).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

meiosis f (plural meiosis)

  1. (biology) meiosis

Further reading

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia