Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The cell formed by the union of two gametes, especially a fertilized ovum before cleavage.
- n. The organism that develops from a zygote.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In biology, a fertilized ovum, or the equivalent, in plants and in unicellular organisms, of a fertilized egg; the product of the conjugation of gametes, or sexual cells.
- n. Same as zygospore.
Wiktionary
- n. A fertilized egg cell.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (genetics) the diploid cell resulting from the union of a haploid spermatozoon and ovum (including the organism that develops from that cell)
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek ζυγωτός (zugōtos, "yoked"), from ζυγός (zugos, "yoke"). (Wiktionary)
- From Greek zugōtos, yoked, from zugoun, to yoke; see yeug- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The zygote is the first stage of development of an individual human being.”
“A fertilised zygote is no more a person than an acorn is an oak tree.”
“I certainly respect your points, anonymous ... but not everybody believes the way you do that a three-celled zygote is akin to an infant.”
“Do you know of anyone who would seriously claim a zygote is not alive?”
“September 13th, 2008 at 11: 01 pm fifth monarchy man: Would a Spartan warrior feel slighted if he were to be killed for the good of the community? fifth monarchy man: Do you know of anyone who would seriously claim a zygote is not alive?”
“After a sperm and egg meet, the resulting cell is known as a zygote.”
“(And by the way, stop using the “individual DNA” stuff to try to define why a zygote is “a separate human life.””
Matthew Yglesias » Legislation Effecting Women: Now With Input From Women
“At fertilization, the egg and sperm cease to exist and an new entity called a zygote comes into being.”
“Furthermore, although the pope and his bishops may truly believe a zygote is a "preborn child," the truth is that a great number of active Catholics do not, and they vote, in great numbers, accordingly.”
The Huffington Post: Michele Somerville: Catholic Bishops Endanger Church Tax Exempt Status
“Modern genetics and biochemistry raise doubt about calling a zygote or blastocyst a human being.”
The Wall Street Journal: The 'Incoherence' of Barack Obama at Notre Dame
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘zygote’.
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life, death, rebirth
vale of tears, aborning, transmigration, reincarnate, nativity, nascence, metempsychosis, palingenesis, againrising, psychopannychism, thnetopsychism, shuffle off this ... and 104 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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The Pain of Texting
Words that are a pain in the ass to type in on a numerical keypad on a cell phone because they have consecutive letters that share the same button:
2 - ABC
3 - DEF
4 - GHI...defcon, hi, no, attitude, xylophone, on, monday, monkey, mono, dig, back, babble and 212 more...
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Words cool peeps use
These are words I have overheard, or over-read, or had whispered in my ear :-)
loquacious, zygote, epigone, kismet, philotheoparoptesism, venal, imbroglio, ephemeral, smarmy, machination, callipygian, lexicon and 8 more...
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come together
Origin: Gk zygÅ-, var. s. of zygoûn
to yoke,
join together
zygote, azygous, heterozygous, homozygous, zygomatic, zygoma, zygomorphic, zygodactyl, zygospore, hemiazygous, zygobranchiate, zygocactus and 3 more...
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zygo-
relating to joining or pairing
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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whatever1013's Words
chocolate, sesquipedalophobia, discombobulated, callipygian, retronym, squirm, cobalt blue, plethora, onomatopoeia, blowhard, strumpet, shush and 173 more...
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Let's talk about sex
A collection of words about doing the nasty.
prurient, odalisque, soubrette, gravid, lochia, xenogamy, syngamy, zygote, pintle, hexaploid, seminal, hetaera and 232 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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dienekes's Words
chutzpah, lexicon, intrepid, pedagogical, schlemiel, schism, erudite, anathema, pugilist, jaunty, paradigm, automaton and 949 more...
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Interesting Scrabble words
Interesting words worth @ least 15 points.
smoochy, zareba, hyphal, djellaba, cloque, pyxidium, qindarka, squiffy, howbeit, chthonic, quinta, azimuthal and 262 more...
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Are we there yet?
These have some growing up to do.
colt, foal, kitten, cub, pup, heifer, larva, imago, veliger, trochophore, grub, maggot and 178 more...
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Amusing words
interesting words
bonce, furcate, tapioca, tillage, desalinate, garish, litmus, roadhog, azoic, haberdasher, imbroglio, polliwog and 802 more...
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miss's list
inexorable, ripe, languid, fervor, polyandry, zygote, rhombus, binary, eunoia
Tweets
Looking for tweets for zygote.
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