ovum - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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

o·vum

Audio Help [oh-vuh

m] Pronunciation Key

–noun, plural o·va

Audio Help [oh-vuh] Pronunciation Key.

Cell Biology.

a.	the female reproductive cell or gamete of animals, which is capable of developing, usually only after fertilization, into a new individual.

b.	the female reproductive cell or gamete of plants.

2.	Architecture. an oval ornament, as in an egg-and-dart molding.

[Origin: 1700–10; < L ōvum egg¹; c. Gk ōión

]

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

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
ovum

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

o·vum Audio Help (ō'vəm) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. o·va (ō'və)
The female reproductive cell or gamete of animals; egg.

[Latin ōvum, egg; see awi- in Indo-European roots.]

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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
ovum

(pl. ova), 1706, from L. ovum "egg," cognate with Gk. oon, O.N. egg, O.E. æg, all from PIE base *owyo-/*oyyo- "egg" (see egg).

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

ovum
noun
the female reproductive cell; the female gamete

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
ovum [ˈəuvəm] noun — plural ova [ˈouvə]

the egg from which the young of people and animals develop

Arabic:	بَيضَه، بُيَيْضَه
Chinese (Simplified):	卵
Chinese (Traditional):	卵
Czech:	vajíčko
Danish:	æg
Dutch:	ei
Estonian:	munarakk
Finnish:	munasolu
French:	ovule
German:	das Ovum
Greek:	ωάριο
Hungarian:	pete
Icelandic:	eggfruma, egg
Indonesian:	telur
Italian:	uovo, cellula uovo*

Japanese:	卵子
Latvian:	ola
Lithuanian:	kiaušinėlis
Norwegian:	egg, ovum
Polish:	jajeczko, jajo
Portuguese (Brazil):	ovo
Portuguese (Portugal):	óvulo
Romanian:	ovul
Russian:	яйцо
Slovak:	vajíčko
Slovenian:	jajčece
Spanish:	óvulo
Swedish:	ägg
Turkish:	yumurta

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

ovum Audio Help (ō'vəm) Pronunciation Key
Plural ova
The mature reproductive cell of female animals, produced in the ovaries. See more at egg.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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

Ovum

Germ\, n. [F. germe, fr. L. germen, germinis, sprout, but, germ. Cf. Germen, Germane.]

1. (Biol.) That which is to develop a new individual; as, the germ of a fetus, of a plant or flower, and the like; the earliest form under which an organism appears.

In the entire process in which a new being originates . . . two distinct classes of action participate; namely, the act of generation by which the germ is produced; and the act of development, by which that germ is evolved into the complete organism. --Carpenter.

2. That from which anything springs; origin; first principle; as, the germ of civil liberty.

Disease germ (Biol.), a name applied to certain tiny bacterial organisms or their spores, such as Anthrax bacillus and the Micrococcus of fowl cholera, which have been demonstrated to be the cause of certain diseases. See Germ theory (below).

Germ cell (Biol.), the germ, egg, spore, or cell from which the plant or animal arises. At one time a part of the body of the parent, it finally becomes detached,and by a process of multiplication and growth gives rise to a mass of cells, which ultimately form a new individual like the parent. See Ovum.

Germ gland. (Anat.) See Gonad.

Germ stock (Zo["o]l.), a special process on which buds are developed in certain animals. See Doliolum.

Germ theory (Biol.), the theory that living organisms can be produced only by the evolution or development of living germs or seeds. See Biogenesis, and Abiogenesis. As applied to the origin of disease, the theory claims that the zymotic diseases are due to the rapid development and multiplication of various bacteria, the germs or spores of which are either contained in the organism itself, or transferred through the air or water. See Fermentation theory.

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