polyploidy

English

Etymology

From polyploid +‎ -y, after German Polyploidie.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒlɪplɔɪdi/

• Audio (Southern England):

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Noun

polyploidy (countable and uncountable, plural polyploidies)

1. (uncountable, genetics) The condition of being polyploid or the process of becoming polyploid.
   • 2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 90:

     As they mature, the DNA is replicated several times but the cell does not divide, a condition known as polyploidy which allows cells to increase in size.

   • 2014 June 28, “Double or quits”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8893:

     This propensity to polyploidy helps account for the diversity (and thus success) of flowering plants, in particular. It is also known that flowering plants sailed majestically through the life-destroying asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous period, which did for the dinosaurs and many other animals.

2. (countable, genetics) An instance of being polyploid.

Derived terms

• allopolyploidy
• autopolyploidy
• cryptopolyploidy
• endopolyploidy
• eupolyploidy
• hexapolyploidy
• neopolyploidy
• paleopolyploidy

Related terms

• ploidy

Translations

state or condition of being a polyploid

Finnish: polyploidia (fi) German: Polyploidie (de) f Hungarian: poliploidia, kromoszómaszerelvény-sokszorozódás, kromoszómaszám sokszorozódás Italian: poliploidia (it) f Romanian: poliploidie (ro) f Spanish: poliploidía (es) f Turkish: poliploidi (tr)