Meiosis

Pronunciation

• IPA: /maɪˈəʊsɪs/
• Rhymes: -əʊsɪs

Origin

Modern Latin, from Ancient Greek μείωσις (meiōsis, "a lessening"), from μειόω (meioō, "I lessen"), from μείων (meiōn, "less").

Full definition of meiosis

Noun

1. (countable, rhetoric) A figure of speech whereby something is made to seem smaller or less important than it actually is.
• 1965, John Fowles, The Magus:I knew, with one of those secret knowledges that can exist between two people, that her suicide was a direct result of my having told her of my own attempt – I had told it with a curt meiosis that was meant to conceal depths; and she had called my bluff one final time.
2. (uncountable, cytology) Cell division of a diploid cell into four haploid cells, which develop to produce gametes.

Synonyms

• (cytology) reduction division

Antonyms

• (rhetoric) hyperbole, auxesis, litotes, paradiastole
• (cytology) mitosis

Meronyms

• (cytology) prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, reduction division, equation division

Derived terms

• meiotic
• meiotically