meiosis

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Mammals and many other organisms achieve reduction and recombination through a process called meiosis, which is recognisable by the presence of a distinctive structure-the synaptonemal complex-that links the chromosomes together and is essential for meiosis to complete.

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  1. noun Genetics The process of cell division in sexually reproducing organisms that reduces the number of chromosomes in reproductive cells from diploid to haploid, leading to the production of gametes in animals and spores in plants.
  2. noun Rhetorical understatement.

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  1. Greek meiōsis, diminution, from meioun, to diminish, from meiōn, less; see mei-2 in Indo-European roots.
 

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