Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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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.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: biology, genetics, medicine, natural-sciences, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
the sex chromosome that is present in both sexes: singly in males and doubly in females
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: sex chromosome
History
Named by Hermann Henking in 1890 from x (signifying the unknown) due to some baffling properties he had observed. 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.
Across languages
8 source translations are retained for this English entry.
