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gamete - 9 dictionary results

gam⋅ete

  [gam-eet, guh-meet]
Use gamete in a Sentence
–noun Biology.
a mature sexual reproductive cell, as a sperm or egg, that unites with another cell to form a new organism.
Origin:
1885–90; < NL gameta < Gk gamet- (s. of gamet wife, gamétēs husband), deriv. of gameîn to marry

Related forms:
ga⋅met⋅ic  [guh-met-ik] , ga⋅me⋅tal  [guh-meet-l] , adjective
ga⋅met⋅i⋅cal⋅ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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gam·ete   (gām'ēt', gə-mēt')   
n.  A reproductive cell having the haploid number of chromosomes, especially a mature sperm or egg capable of fusing with a gamete of the opposite sex to produce the fertilized egg.

[New Latin gameta, from Greek gametē, wife and gametēs, husband, from gamein, to marry, from gamos, marriage; see gemə- in Indo-European roots.]
ga·met'ic (-mět'ĭk) adj., ga·met'i·cal·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Gamete

Gam"ete\ (g[a^]m"[=e]t; g[.a]*m[=e]t"; the latter usually in compounds), n. [Gr. gameth` wife, or game`ths husband, fr. gamei^n to marry.] (Biol.) A sexual cell or germ cell; a conjugating cell which unites with another of like or unlike character to form a new individual. In Bot., gamete designates esp. the similar sex cells of the lower thallophytes which unite by conjugation, forming a zygospore. The gametes of higher plants are of two sorts, sperm (male) and egg (female); their union is called fertilization, and the resulting zygote an o["o]spore. In Zo["o]l., gamete is most commonly used of the sexual cells of certain Protozoa, though also extended to the germ cells of higher forms.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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gamete

A reproductive cell having a single set of chromosomes, especially a mature sperm or egg.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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gamete 
"sexual protoplasmic body," 1886, name introduced in Mod.L. by Austrian biologist Gregor Mendel (1822-84), from Gk. gamete "a wife," gametes "a husband," from gamein "to take to wife, to marry," from PIE base *gem(e)- "to marry" (cf. Gk. gambros "son-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law;" Skt. jamih "brother, sister," jama daughter-in-law;" Avestan zama-tar "son-in-law;" L. gener "son-in-law"). This also is the source of the suffix in monogamy, etc. The seventh month of the ancient Attic calendar (corresponding to late January and early February) was Gamelion, "Month of Marriages."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: ga·mete
Pronunciation: 'gam-"Et also g&-'mEt
Function: noun
: a mature male or female germ cell usually possessing a haploidchromosome set and capable of initiating formation of a new diploid individual by fusion with a gamete of the opposite sex called also sex cell —ga·met·ic /g&-'met-ik, -'mEt-/ adjective —ga·met·i·cal·ly /-i-k(&-)lE/ adverb
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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gamete gam·ete (gām'ēt', gə-mēt')
n.
A reproductive cell having the haploid number of chromosomes, especially a sperm or egg capable of fusing with a gamete of the opposite sex to produce a fertilized egg.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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gamete   (gām'ēt')  Pronunciation Key 
A cell whose nucleus unites with that of another cell to form a new organism. A gamete contains only a single (haploid) set of chromosomes. Animal egg and sperm cells, the nuclei carried in grains of pollen, and egg cells in plant ovules are all gametes. Also called germ cell, reproductive cell, sex cell. See Note at mitosis.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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gamete

sex, or reproductive, cell containing only one set of dissimilar chromosomes, or half of the genetic material necessary to form a complete organism (i.e., haploid). During fertilization, male and female gametes fuse, producing a diploid (i.e., containing paired chromosomes) zygote. Gametes may be identical in form (isogamy), as in the black mold (Rhizopus), or there may be more than one morphological type (heterogamy), as with many green algae of the genus Chlamydomonas. Gametes of animals, some algae and fungi, and all higher plants exhibit an advanced form of heterogamy called oogamy. In oogamy, one of the gametes is small and motile (the sperm), and the other is large and nonmotile (the egg). See also egg; sperm.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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