gamete
- a mature sexual reproductive cell, as a sperm or egg, that unites with another cell to form a new organism.
Origin of gamete
Examples from the Web for gamete
Historical Examples
The two were mutually exclusive so far as the gamete was concerned.
MendelismReginald Crundall Punnett
For on hypothesis every gamete must be pure for one or other of these two characters.
MendelismReginald Crundall Punnett
The factor for this or that unit-character is either present in the gamete or it is not present.
MendelismReginald Crundall Punnett
The saving grace is with the gamete, and with the gamete alone.
MendelismReginald Crundall Punnett
It is the participation of the gamete in the process that is our criterion of what is and what is not heredity.
MendelismReginald Crundall Punnett
gamete
- a haploid germ cell, such as a spermatozoon or ovum, that fuses with another germ cell during fertilization
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for gamete
n.
"sexual protoplasmic body," 1880, coined 1878 by German cytologist Eduard Strasburger (1844-1912), the widespread attribution to Mendel being apparently erroneous; from Greek gamete "a wife," gametes "a husband," from gamein "to take to wife, to marry," from PIE root *gem(e)- "to marry" (cf. Greek gambros "son-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law;" Sanskrit jamih "brother, sister," jama daughter-in-law;" Avestan zama-tar "son-in-law;" Latin gener "son-in-law"). Cf. also -gamy. The seventh month of the ancient Attic calendar (corresponding to late January and early February) was Gamelion, "Month of Marriages."
gamete
(găm′ēt′, gə-mēt′)- A reproductive cell having the haploid number of chromosomes, especially a sperm or egg capable of fusing with a gamete of the opposite sex to produce a fertilized egg.
gamete
- A cell whose nucleus unites with that of another cell to form a new organism. A gamete contains only a single (haploid) set of chromosomes. Animal egg and sperm cells, the nuclei carried in grains of pollen, and egg cells in plant ovules are all gametes. Also called germ cell reproductive cell, sex cell See Note at mitosis.
gamete
A reproductive cell having a single set of chromosomes, especially a mature sperm or egg.