heterozygote

[ het-er-uh-zahy-goht, -zig-oht ]

/ ˌhɛt ər əˈzaɪ goʊt, -ˈzɪg oʊt /

Save This Word!

noun Genetics.

a hybrid containing genes for two unlike forms of a characteristic, and therefore not breeding true to type.

QUIZ

QUIZ YOURSELF ON "IS" VS. "ARE"

"Is" it time for a new quiz? "Are" you ready? Then prove your excellent skills on using "is" vs. "are."

Question 1 of 7

IS and ARE are both forms of which verb?

have

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of heterozygote

First recorded in 1900–05; hetero- + zygote

Words nearby heterozygote

heteroxanthine, heteroxenous, heteroxenous parasite, heterozygosis, heterozygosity, heterozygote, heterozygous, heth, He that is not with me is against me, hetman, hetmanate

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use heterozygote in a sentence

The heterozygote produced by crossing these forms is intermediate in size and appearance.
Mendelism|Reginald Crundall Punnett
Heterozygote (different yolk), a zygotic individual which contains both members of an allelomorphic pair.
Applied Eugenics|Paul Popenoe and Roswell Hill Johnson
If the individual was really a heterozygote, approximately fifty per cent.
Being Well-Born|Michael F. Guyer
Eosin is allelomorphic to white and the white-eosin compound or heterozygote has the color of the eosin male.
Sex-linked Inheritance in Drosophila|Thomas Hunt Morgan

In this character, then, dominance almost always fails to show itself in the heterozygote and often fails in pure dominants.
Inheritance of Characteristics in Domestic Fowl|Charles Benedict Davenport

British Dictionary definitions for heterozygote

heterozygote

/ (ˌhɛtərəʊˈzaɪɡəʊt, -ˈzɪɡəʊt) /

noun

an animal or plant that is heterozygous; a hybridCompare homozygote

Derived forms of heterozygote

heterozygosis, noun

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

Medical definitions for heterozygote

heterozygote

[ hĕt′ə-rō-zī′gōt′ ]

An organism that has different alleles at a particular gene locus on homologous chromosomes.