mutation

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See also: Mutation

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

Etymology

Late 14th century as Middle English mutacioun, from Latin mūtātiō, both directly and via Old French mutacion.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mjuˈteɪʃən/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

mutation (countable and uncountable, plural mutations)

  1. Any alteration or change.
  2. (genetics) Any heritable change of the base-pair sequence of genetic material.
    • 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 14 August 2013:
      Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, […]. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.
  3. A mutant.
  4. (linguistics) An alteration in a particular sound of a word, especially the initial consonant, which is triggered by the word's morphological or syntactic context and not by its phonological context.
  5. (law) The transfer of title of an asset in a register.
  6. (rare, collective noun) A group of thrushes.
    • 1984, Virginia Wildlife, volume 45, Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries:
      Birdwatchers would enjoy a host of sparrows, a herd of swans, a descent of woodpeckers, a herd of wrens, and mutation of thrushes.
    • 2010, Doug Bennet, Tim Tiner, The Complete Up North: A Guide to Ontario's Wilderness from Black Flies to the Northern Lights, page 57:
      Names for a group: A flute or mutation of thrushes.
    • 2013, Jason Sacher, A Compendium of Collective Nouns: From an Armory of Aardvarks to a Zeal of Zebras, page 196:
      A Mutation of Thrushes
      The authors of the books of venery were not predicting Darwin with this term, but taking a cue from a common fable of the time.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

mutant — see mutant

References

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “mutation”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French mutation, from Old French mutacion, borrowed from Latin mutātiōnem.

Pronunciation

Noun

mutation f (plural mutations)

  1. substitution
  2. mutation

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

  • → Turkish: mutasyon

Further reading

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French mutacion, borrowed from Latin mutatio, mutationem.

Noun

mutation f (plural mutations)

  1. change, alteration, mutation

Related terms

Descendants

Swedish

Noun

mutation c

  1. (countable, uncountable, genetics) mutation
  2. (countable, uncountable, by extension) mutation (alteration or change, more generally)

Declension

Declension of mutation 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative mutation mutationen mutationer mutationerna
Genitive mutations mutationens mutationers mutationernas

Related terms

See also

References

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia