spermatozoon
Americannoun
-
spermatozoa
plural
noun
-
spermatozoa
plural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of spermatozoon
From New Latin, dating back to 1830–40; see origin at spermato-, -zoon
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:
The Oklahoma measure defines fertilisation as the "fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human ovum".
From BBC ● May 19, 2022
If a y-chromosome spermatozoon happens to penetrate the female ovum, the get is a boy; if an x-chromosome, it is a girl.
From Time Magazine Archive
Since there was no spermatozoon in the case of the fatherless rabbit, therefore no male-determining pattern, the Pincus rabbit is a female.
From Time Magazine Archive
If the spermatozoon has a male-determining chromosome pattern in its nucleus, the sex will be male; if not, female.
From Time Magazine Archive
This is undoubtedly derived from the spermatozoon, possibly from its nucleus only, and is called the male pronucleus.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 3 "Electrostatics" to "Engis" by Various
Mature spermatozoa are characterized by an head, midpiece and a long tail for locomotion.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 27, 2023
Converting these cells into viable spermatozoa could help to save the critically endangered animal from extinction.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 29, 2023
In medical nomenclature, this would be four weeks of gestational age, though it is only two weeks after that egg was released from the ovary, met a spermatozoa, and formed an embryo.
From Slate ● Jun. 20, 2022
The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, found the virus in about 4 percent of the spermatozoa of a 32-year-old man who had had Zika symptoms more than four months earlier.
From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2016
Some indication of the possible effect on human beings is seen in medical reports of oligospermia, or reduced production of spermatozoa, among aviation crop dusters applying DDT.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
