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Y chromosome

Y chromosome noun: a mammalian sex chromosome: in the XY sex-determination system, cells of females typically have a pair of X chromosomes, while cells of males typically have an X and a Y.

Noun

Y chromosome (plural Y chromosomes)

  1. A mammalian sex chromosome: in the XY sex-determination system, cells of females typically have a pair of X chromosomes, while cells of males typically have an X and a Y.

Forms of Y chromosome

pluralY chromosomes
alternative formY-chromosome

Origin of Y chromosome

Named by Nettie Stevens in 1905 using the next letter in sequence following the naming by Hermann Henking in 1890 of the X chromosome. The brief resemblance in the appearance of the X and Y chromosomes to the letters "X" and "Y" respectively during cell division is entirely coincidental.

Questions about Y chromosome

What does Y chromosome mean?
Y chromosome means a mammalian sex chromosome: in the XY sex-determination system, cells of females typically have a pair of X chromosomes, while cells of males typically have an X and a Y.
What part of speech is Y chromosome?
Y chromosome is a noun.
What is the plural of Y chromosome?
The plural of Y chromosome is Y chromosomes.

Words near Y chromosome in the dictionary

  1. y
  2. Y bone
  3. Y bones
  4. Y cable
  5. Y cables
  6. Y chromosome
  7. Y chromosomes
  8. Y current
  9. Y currents
  10. Y Felinheli
  11. Y Fenni

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Y chromosome (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:

Cite this entry: “Y chromosome.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/y_chromosome. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.