English

Noun

meiosis ‎(countable and uncountable, plural meioses)

1. (countable, rhetoric) A figure of speech whereby something is made to seem smaller or less important than it actually is; understatement.
   • 1965, John Fowles, The Magus:

     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.

2. (uncountable, cytology) Cell division of a diploid cell into four haploid cells, which develop to produce gametes.

Synonyms

• (rhetoric): See understatement
• (cytology): reduction division

Antonyms

• (rhetoric): See hyperbole
• (cytology): mitosis

Meronyms

• (cytology): prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, reduction division, equation division

Derived terms

• meiotic
• meiotically

Translations

See also

• meiosis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Spanish

Noun

meiosis f ‎(plural meiosis)

1. (biology) meiosis