Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

meroblastic

American  
[mer-uh-blas-tik] / ˌmɛr əˈblæs tɪk /

adjective

Embryology.
  1. (of certain eggs) undergoing partial cleavage, resulting in unequal blastomeres.


meroblastic British  
/ ˌmɛrəʊˈblæstɪk /

adjective

  1. embryol of or showing cleavage of only the non-yolky part of the zygote, as in birds' eggs Compare holoblastic

"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

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of meroblastic

First recorded in 1865–70; mero- + -blast + -ic

Compare meaning

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

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Other species, such as birds, with a lot of yolk in the egg to nourish the embryo during development, undergo meroblastic cleavage.

From Textbooks Jun. 9, 2022

The meroblastic ova are only found in the larger and more highly developed animals, and only in those whose embryo needs a longer time and richer nourishment within the foetal membranes.

From The Evolution of Man — Volume 1 by Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August

This is comparatively easy in the small meroblastic ova which contain little nutritive yelk—for instance, in the marine ova of a bony fish, the development of which I observed in 1875 at Ajaccio in Corsica.

From The Evolution of Man — Volume 1 by Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August

Latebra, lat′eb-ra, n. the cavity in the food-yolk of a meroblastic ovum.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various

Parablast, par′a-blast, n. the supplementary or nutritive yolk of a meroblastic egg or metovum—as distinguished from the archiblast, or formative yolk.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training