holoblastic

American  

[hol-uh-blas-tik, hoh-luh-] / ˌhɒl əˈblæs tɪk, ˌhoʊ lə- /

adjective

Embryology.

1. (of certain eggs) undergoing total cleavage, resulting in equal blastomeres.

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holoblastic British  

/ ˌhɒləˈblæstɪk /

adjective

1. embryol of or showing cleavage of the entire zygote into blastomeres, as in eggs with little yolk Compare meroblastic

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Other Word Forms

• holoblastically adverb

Etymology

Origin of holoblastic

1870–75; holoblast ( holo- + -blast ) + -ic

Compare meaning

How does holoblastic compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• holoblastic vs. meroblastic

Example Sentences

Holoblastic, hol-o-blas′tik, adj. undergoing segmentation throughout the entire mass, as the ova of mammals.

From Project Gutenberg

Broadly speaking, they fall first into two groups: the older cyclostoma, the earliest fishes, most of the amphibia, and the viviparous mammals, have holoblastic ova—that is to say, ova with total, unequal segmentation; while the younger cyclostoma, most of the fishes, the cephalopods, reptiles, birds, and monotremes, have meroblastic ova, or ova with partial discoid segmentation.

From Project Gutenberg

Although the mass of the food-yelk may be very large in the ova of the discoblastic vertebrates, nevertheless in every case a blastula is developed from the morula, as in the holoblastic ova.

From Project Gutenberg