Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The mature male gamete of an animal, usually consisting of a nucleate head, a short neck, and a thin motile tail.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One of the numberless microscopic bodies contained in semen, to which the seminal fluid owes its vitality, and which are the immediate and active means of impregnating or fertilizing the ovum of the female; a spermatic cell or filament; a spermatozoan or spermatozooid.
- noun A genus of animalcules.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Biol.) Same as
spermatozoid .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun cytology The reproductive cell or
gamete of the male, carried insemen , that fertilizes theovum to produce thezygote .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the male reproductive cell; the male gamete
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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-- The male reproductive element is called spermatozoon, or zoosperm.
Plain facts for old and young : embracing the natural history and hygiene of organic life. 1877
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Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines pregnancy, in relevant part, as "the condition of having a developing embryo or fetus in the body, after union of an oocyte and spermatozoon."
Cristina Page: HHS Moves to Define Contraception as Abortion 2009
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To explain such “different people choices”, Parfit adopts the genetic identity view of personal identity: the identity of a person is at least in part constituted by the DNA the person has as a result of which ovum was fertilized by this or that spermatozoon in the creation of this person.
Intergenerational Justice Meyer, Lukas 2008
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Here, in all these cases, what is required is the detachment of two portions of the parental organisms, which portions we know as the egg and the spermatozoon.
Essays 2007
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Why should anyone have to pay taxes on income from my labor while the result of the lucky spermatozoon contest is excused?
Firedoglake » Repeal the Bling Tax…Erm…Estate Tax Or Not? 2006
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Wise man stay away from the Eurostar, now promoting itself as the tunnel of love with spermatozoon baked beans.
“go hug mom” 2006
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After a few spins its thunderous bassline and electro chorus finally take hold and lodge in your brain like an egg-hungry spermatozoon.
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But, as ever, Clarkson’s voice – as powerful as Alan Sugar in the boardroom, as gutsy as an egg-hungry spermatozoon – makes it that little bit more interesting than it might otherwise have been.
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The term “spermatozoon” is well chosen since the sperm, with its long flagellum—or tail—is very much akin to a protozoan.
THE HIDDEN FACE OF GOD GERALD L. SCHROEDER 2001
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The term “spermatozoon” is well chosen since the sperm, with its long flagellum—or tail—is very much akin to a protozoan.
THE HIDDEN FACE OF GOD GERALD L. SCHROEDER 2001
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