hemiclonal
|he-mi-clo-nal|
🇺🇸
/ˌhɛmɪˈkloʊnəl/
🇬🇧
/ˌhɛmɪˈkləʊnəl/
partly clonal
Etymology
'hemiclonal' originates from the Greek prefix 'hēmi-' meaning 'half' combined with 'clonal', from 'clone' (from Greek 'klōn' meaning 'twig' or 'offshoot').
'hemiclonal' was formed in modern scientific English by combining the Greek prefix 'hēmi-' with the adjective 'clonal' (itself from 'clone', borrowed into English in the 20th century from Greek 'klōn'); the compound appeared in late 20th century biological literature as 'hemiclonal'.
Initially, it meant 'half-clonal' or 'partly clonal', and it has retained this specialized biological meaning of 'partly clonal' in modern usage.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
describing a form of reproduction or genetic transmission that is partly clonal, in which some genomic material is transmitted clonally while other material is not.
Many hybrid frogs reproduce hemiclonally, passing one parental genome clonally while the other is replaced each generation.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2026/01/16 18:05