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''zygote'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260915190735-00-⌔

zygote - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

zygote (plural zygotes)

  • (cytology, also attributive) A eukaryotic cell formed from the fusion of two gametes (“reproductive cells”) during a fertilization process. [from late 19th c.]
    • ✤ Hyponyms: homozygote, heterozygote, merozygote, monozygote, parthenote, planozygote

Etymology

🖼️ ➺

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ζῠγωτός (zŭgōtós, “yoked”) + English -ote (suffix meaning ‘having [the thing to which it is attached]’). Ζῠγωτός (Zŭgōtós) is derived from ζῠγόω (zŭgóō, “to join or yoke together”) + -τός (-tós, suffix forming adjectives of possibility);1 and ζῠγόω (zŭgóō) from ζῠγόν (zŭgón, “yoke for joining animals; anything which joins two things together”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ﹡yewg- (“to tie together, join, yoke”)) + -όω (-óō, suffix forming causative or factitive verbs). By surface analysis, zygo- +‎ -ote.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈzaɪɡəʊt/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈzaɪˌɡoʊt/
  • Audio (General American): 🔊
  • Hyphenation: zyg‧ote

Printed 2026-09-15.

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Footnotes

  1. “zygote, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “zygote, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

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