eukaryote
or eu·car·y·ote
[yoo-kar-ee-oht, -ee-uh t]
noun Biology.
any organism having as its fundamental structural unit a cell type that contains specialized organelles in the cytoplasm, a membrane-bound nucleus enclosing genetic material organized into chromosomes, and an elaborate system of division by mitosis or meiosis, characteristic of all life forms except bacteria, blue-green algae, and other primitive microorganisms.
Compare prokaryote.
Origin of eukaryote
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
eukaryote
eucaryote
noun
Word Origin for eukaryote
from eu- + karyo- + -ote as in zygote
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
eukaryote
n.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
eukaryote
[yōō-kăr′ē-ōt]
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
eukaryote
[(yooh-kar-ee-oht)]
Note
Eukaryotes evolved in a process in which one early prokaryote consumed another, forming a more complex structure.
Note
The word eukaryote comes from the Greek for “true nucleus.”
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.