meiosis
UK/maɪˈəʊ.sɪs//maɪˈoʊ.sɪs/
meiosis noun: a figure of speech in which something is presented as smaller or less significant than it actually appears.
Noun
meiosis (countable and uncountable, plural meioses)
- A figure of speech in which something is presented as smaller or less significant than it actually appears.
- 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.1965, John Fowles, The Magus
- Synonyms:
- understatement
- Antonyms:
- hyperbole, overstatement, exaggeration, auxesis
- Cell division of a diploid cell into four haploid cells, which develop to produce gametes.
- Synonyms:
- reduction division
meiosis meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam
meiosis in Hindi
- cell division
- अर्धसूत्रण ardhsūtraṇ, अर्धसूत्री विभाजन ardhsūtrī vibhājan
meiosis in Tamil
- cell division
- ஒடுக்கற்பிரிவு oṭukkaṟpirivu
meiosis in Bengali
- cell division
- মিয়োসিস miẏōśiś
meiosis in Malayalam
- cell division
- ഊനഭംഗം ūnabhaṅgaṁ, മയോസിസ് mayōsisŭ
More languagesFewer languages
- meiosis in Kannada
- ಮಿಯಾಸಿಸ್ miyāsis
- meiosis in Indonesian
- meiosis
- meiosis in Persian
- میوز
- meiosis in Vietnamese
- giảm phân
Synonyms of meiosis
Antonyms
Forms of meiosis
| plural | meioses |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | maiosis |
| alternative form (obsolete) | miosis |
Origin of meiosis
From Ancient Greek μείωσις (meíōsis, “a lessening”), from μειόω (meióō, “I lessen”), from μείων (meíōn, “less”). The biological sense was coined by British biologists John Bretland Farmer and John Edmund Sharrock Moore in 1905 as maiosis in a paper in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Science, with the spelling corrected on etymological grounds later that year. Doublet of miosis.
Words formed from meiosis
Words that rhyme with meiosis
- apotheosis
- symbiosis
- -osis
- abiosis
- diagnosis
- gnosis
- hypnosis
- lordosis
- arthrosis
- cytosis
- kyphosis
- osmosis
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- prognosis
- sclerosis
- stenosis
- synostosis
- theosis
- acanthocytosis
- acanthosis
- acidosis
- adiposis
- aerobiosis
- alkalosis
- amyloidosis
- anadiplosis
- anostosis
- aponeurosis
- apoptosis
- endocytosis
- exocytosis
- halitosis
- hemochromatosis
- ichthyosis
- koilocytosis
- lactosis
- leukoerythroblastosis
- miosis
- mitosis
- mononucleosis
- mycosis
- neoatherosclerosis
- neurosis
- ochronosis
- osteophytosis
- osteoporosis
- parahypnosis
- phagocytosis
- pinocytosis
- pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
- potocytosis
- probiosis
- psychosis
- ptosis
- pyrosis
- retrognosis
- rubatosis
- silicosis
- simuliotoxicosis
- synchondrosis
- syndesmosis
Questions about meiosis
- What does meiosis mean?
- Meiosis means a figure of speech in which something is presented as smaller or less significant than it actually appears.
- What is meiosis in Hindi?
- Meiosis in Hindi is अर्धसूत्रण (ardhsūtraṇ), अर्धसूत्री विभाजन (ardhsūtrī vibhājan). See Meiosis meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is meiosis?
- Meiosis is a noun.
- How do you pronounce meiosis?
- Meiosis is pronounced /maɪˈəʊ.sɪs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of meiosis?
- The plural of meiosis is meioses.
Words near meiosis in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: meiosis (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-meiosis.ogg.
Cite this entry: “meiosis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/meiosis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.