meiosisとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From Ancient Greek μείωσις (meíōsis, “a lessening”), from μειόω (meióō, “I lessen”), from μείων (meíōn, “less”). Coined by British biologists John Bretland Farmer and John Edmund Sharrock Moore in 1905 as maiosis in an paper in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Science, with the spelling corrected on etymological grounds later that year.

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /maɪˈəʊ.sɪs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /maɪˈoʊ.sɪs/
  • Homophone: miosis
  • 韻: -əʊsɪs

名詞

meiosis (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 meioses)

1. (countable, rhetoric) A figure of speech whereby something is made to seem smaller or less important than it actually is.

   Synonym: understatement

   Antonyms: hyperbole, overstatement, exaggeration

   Hyponym: litotes

   • 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.

   Synonym: reduction division

   Antonym: mitosis

   Meronyms: prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, reduction division, equation division

派生語

• meiotic
• meiotically

Further reading

• meiosis (figure of speech) on Wikipedia.
• meiosis on Wikipedia.