Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Reproducing by biological fission.
- adj. Tending to break up into parts or break away from a main body; factious.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Reproducing or multiplying by fission or spontaneous self-division, a mode of asexual generation by division into two or more parts, each of which, when completely separated, becomes a new individual: it is a usual process among the protozoans, protophytes, and other low organisms. See fission, 2.
Wiktionary
- adj. Factious, tending to break into pieces.
- adj. Causing division or fragmenting something.
- adj. biology Of cells that reproduce through fission, splitting into two.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. (Biol.) Reproducing by spontaneous fission. See fission.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. reproducing by fission
- adj. having separated or advocating separation from another entity or policy or attitude
Examples
“All error is what physiologists term fissiparous, and in exterminating one false opinion you may be hindering the growth of an uncounted brood of false opinions.”
“A legacy of a strong nation unbroken by 'fissiparous' tendencies despite the dire predictions of foreign observers; a nation armed with nuclear weapons and missiles; a nation with the ability to assert an independent foreign policy and independent path of capitalist development, in the main, fully capable of holding its head high in the international community and world economic stage.”
“[T] he picture that this report paints is one of small, sectarian and chauvinist groupuscules, reproducing in this country the fissiparous and distrustful community loyalties of the subcontinent.”
Young British Muslims at the mercy of extremists because of out-of-touch Imams
“The hope of these minorities is that a fissiparous Pakistan, with its history of dysfunctional civilian and military governments, will give way in the fullness of time to a sprawling Greater India, thus liberating Baluchistan to pursue its destiny as a truly autonomous region.”
“The sixth and final app was the West's work ethic, which held together the potentially fissiparous society produced by the first five.”
“One year after that he wrote in Earthquakes in London a fissiparous climate-change drama with thinly realised characters among them a glacial female politician which was given an explosive staging by Rupert Goold.”
The Guardian: The Last of the Duchess; 13; The Village Social – review
“See, this is exactly why I parted with Protestantism: I could never discern any real desire for unity (which would have been impossible in any case because it is way too fissiparous).”
“One good thing about Protestantism, though: it force me to learn the word "fissiparous.”
“Then there is the danger that Iraq's fissiparous character could drive it back into civil war.”
“But Clegg must be thinking very carefully about his options – the Liberals have a terribly fissiparous history.”
The Guardian: Labour prepares to pounce if Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition talks fail
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fissiparous’.
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 272 more...
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phrontistery - f
from phrontistery.info
fabaceous, fabiform, fabulist, faburden, face-cord, facetiae, facia, facinorous, factious, factitious, factitive, factive and 418 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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reproduction
gravid, hysterectomy, vanishing twin, fetal resorption, fetus papyraceus, craniopagus paras..., vestigial twin, fetus in fetu, pump twin, blighted ovum, fetal pole, crown-rump length and 110 more...
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Extrude
tchotchke, lugubrious, inspissated, fissiparous, vituperation, quondam, absolutisation, artisanal, funicular, sacerdotal, abstruse, circumspect and 38 more...
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ash vocab
flippant, fillip, expiate, explicate, extirpate, facile, florid, fealty, allegiance, fetid, febrile, pert and 134 more...
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Review
Words to study and become more familiar with.
phatic, tontine, backronym, polyptoton, fissiparous, deus ex machina, orrery, prolly, mad props, snog, oubliette, copyleft and 101 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, F
felony, frolic, fend, fuselage, farthingale, freewheeling, frigorific, flummery, fancypants, felsitic, flagstone, flageolet and 295 more...
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Joe's list
Fissiparous Weekly Standard Nigeria a fissiparous country 3/2012
fissiparous, inchoate, punctilious, synecdoche, apocryphal, superadd, pedant, pedagogy, astigmatic, inter alia, aphoristically, eponymous and 131 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1459 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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Mélange
doggerel, odsbodkins, platitudinous, ennui, strappleberry, stygian, inchoate, incipient, deleterious, gnarled, troglodyte, interlocutor and 96 more...
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wordhoard
dilatory, ataraxia, hermit, cabana, hut, dome, vestigial, porcine, crapulous, usufruct, curmudgeon, bombastic and 229 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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suzyg's Words
brandish, recompence, shopping, dichotomy, paradigm, reverse osmosis, anyway, despite, drunk, degenerate, insipid, grateful and 438 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1387 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fissiparous.

nkocharh See: Iraq Dec 13, 2006