Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- 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.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In biology, a propagative protoplasmic body which unites with a similar or dissimilar body to form a spore, called a zygote, the latter being either a zygospore or an oöspore. Mobile gametes resembling zoöspores are called planogametes or zoögametes.
- n. A general term for the mature germ-cells, either male (spermatozoön) or female (ovum), which unite to form the zygote.
Wiktionary
- n. cytology A reproductive cell (male (sperm) or female (egg)) that has only half the usual number of chromosomes.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Biol.) A sexual cell or germ cell having a single set of unpaired chromosomes; 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 azygospore . The gametes of higher plants are of two sorts, sperm (male) and egg (female); their union is calledfertilization , and the resulting zygote anoöspore . In Zoöl.,gamete is most commonly used of the sexual cells of certain Protozoa, though also extended to the germ cells of higher forms.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a mature sexual reproductive cell having a single set of unpaired chromosomes
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek γαμετή ("wife"), γαμέτης ("husband"), ultimately from γάμος ("marriage"). (Wiktionary)
- New Latin gameta, from Greek gametē, wife and gametēs, husband, from gamein, to marry, from gamos, marriage; see gemə- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A variation of IVF, called gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) consists of the immediate injection of the ova into the fallopian tube after combination with semen without determining whether they have been successfully fertilized.”
“In females, the gamete is the egg, fewer and larger cells produced in an environment capable of supplying nutrition to a developing embryo.”
“Marriage is often actually defined as the gamete of the state.”
“Traditionally, many people who have gone to sperm banks have indeed wanted to take the man out of the sperm, preferring to pretend that what they're buying is just a "gamete," which came from, well, the gamete factory, not from a living, breathing man whose personality and looks they may find practically duplicated in their child.”
Louise Sloan: You Can Take the Sperm Out of the Man, But Can You Take the Man Out of the Sperm?
“The chance of an individual gamete which is a (d u) recombinant combining with another (d u) recombinant is (p/2) x (p/2).”
“Adoption Act declared unconstitutional because it discriminates against children who are born through "gamete" donors, including sperm donors.”
“Pratten, who now works as a journalist in Toronto, filed her lawsuit in 2008, seeking to have the Adoption Act declared unconstitutional because it discriminates against children who are born through "gamete" donors, which includes sperm and egg donors.”
“These are the new sequences, created from a hybrid of Andorian DNA as well as wholly new code intended to fill the gaps left by genetic deficiencies contained within an original gamete after fertilization.”
Simon & Schuster: Star Trek: Typhon Pact Paths of Disharmony
“The theory she presented for altering the genetic code in an Andorian gamete is straightforward enough.”
Simon & Schuster: Star Trek: Typhon Pact Paths of Disharmony
“Here at Huffington Post Travel we've covered the gamete of amenities, from completely extraordinary--an underwater suite, perhaps?”
The Huffington Post: Snuggies And Special Tuck-Ins: 7 Weird Hotel Amenities
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gamete’.
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*e?e
Words whose last and third-to-last letters are both "e".
here, eke, were, complete, mete, replete, adhere, where, mere, sphere, austere, aesthete and 99 more...
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Assigned Words
enfranchise, epiphany, equinox, expurgate, facetious, gamete, hegemony, lugubrious, moiety, nihilism, nomenclature, obsequious and 15 more...
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know-it-all
eunuch, couvade, ecclesiastes, enigma, inevitable, crucible, genteel, bedlam, baculum, scapulimancy, atrophy, smut and 170 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Genetics
allele, zygote, y chromosome, x linked disease, alloantigen, allopolyploid, z chromosome, x chromosome, mosaicism, allogeneic, allosome, hemizygous and 136 more...
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Amy's Word
Words that are hard...
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Biolorgy
Fun words about biology
velociraptor, natural selection, hypothalamus, meiosis, lungfish, evolution, nephron, homo erectus, gene, ecology, marsupial, gamete and 8 more...
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100 Words / 17-32
diffident, enervate, enfranchise, epiphany, equinox, euro, evanescent, expurgate, facetious, fatuous, feckless, fiduciary and 4 more...
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100 Words Everyone Should Know, Accor...
this list appeared in many American newspapers in the fall of 2002.
abjure, abrogate, abstemious, acumen, antebellum, auspicious, belie, bellicose, bowdlerize, chicanery, chromosome, churlish and 88 more...
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100 Words That All High School Gradua...
reference
abjure, abrogate, abstemious, acumen, antebellum, auspicious, belie, bellicose, bowdlerize, chicanery, chromosome, churlish and 88 more...
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arthegall's Words
harmonic, homunculus, variety, surd, fnord, ablate, fluxion, gavagai, tensor, differential, homology, gauge and 25 more...
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