heterospore
|het-er-o-spore|
🇺🇸
/ˈhɛtərəspɔr/
🇬🇧
/ˈhɛtərəspɔː/
different kind of spore
Etymology
'heterospore' originates from Neo-Latin/scientific coinage, specifically from Greek 'heteros' and Greek 'spora', where 'heteros' meant 'different, other' and 'spora' meant 'seed' or 'sowing'.
'heterospore' developed via Neo-Latin botanical terms such as 'heterosporus' or 'heterospora' used in 19th-century scientific literature and was adopted into modern English as 'heterospore'.
Initially, the elements meant 'different' + 'seed/sowing', and the term came to mean specifically 'a spore of a different kind produced by heterosporous plants' in modern botanical usage.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
a spore produced by a heterosporous plant; one of two distinct kinds of spores (microspore or megaspore).
A heterospore may develop into either a male or a female gametophyte depending on its type.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2025/12/09 15:38