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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

gam·ete

Audio Help [gam-eet, guh-meet] Pronunciation Key

–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, gamétés husband), deriv. of gameǐn to marry

]

—Related forms

ga·met·ic

Audio Help [guh-met-ik] Pronunciation Key, ga·me·tal

Audio Help [guh-meet-l] Pronunciation Key, adjective

ga·met·i·cal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
gamete

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

gam·ete Audio Help (gām'ēt', gə-mēt') Pronunciation Key
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.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
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."

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

gamete
noun
a mature sexual reproductive cell having a single set of unpaired chromosomes

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

gamete Audio Help (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.

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
gamete

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

[Chapter:] Life Sciences

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

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