Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Zoology Giving birth to living offspring that develop within the mother's body. Most mammals and some other animals are viviparous.
- adjective Germinating or producing seeds that germinate before becoming detached from the parent plant, as in the mangrove.
- adjective Producing bulbils or new plants rather than seed, as in the tiger lily.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Bringing forth alive; having young which maintain vascular vital connection with the body of the parent until they are born in a comparatively advanced stage of development; reproducing by birth, not by hatching from an egg which is laid and afterward incubated: correlated with oviparous and ovoviviparous. See these words, and egg.
- In botany, germinating or sprouting from a seed or bud which is still on the parent plant.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Biol.) Producing young in a living state, as most mammals, or as those plants the offspring of which are produced alive, either by bulbs instead of seeds, or by the seeds themselves germinating on the plant, instead of falling, as they usually do; -- opposed to
oviparous . - adjective (Zoöl.) See
Embiotocoid . - adjective (Zoöl.) any one of numerous species of operculated fresh-water gastropods belonging to Viviparus, Melantho, and allied genera. Their young, when born, have a well-developed spiral shell.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective of an animal or animal species Being
born alive , as are mostmammals , somereptiles , and a fewfish (as opposed to being laid as anegg and subsequentlyhatching , as do mostbirds and many other species). - adjective of a plant or plant species Arising from an
embryo that develops from the outset (rather than from a trueseed that thengerminates ).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective producing living young (not eggs)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word viviparous.
Examples
-
All animals whatsoever, whether they fly or swim or walk upon dry land, whether they bring forth their young alive or in the egg, develop in the same way: save only that some have the navel attached to the womb, namely the viviparous animals, and some have it attached to the egg, and some to both parts alike, as in a certain sort of fishes.
-
= -- The formation of little bulbs upon the surfaces or edges of leaves, forming what are called viviparous leaves, has long been familiar to botanists amongst Alliums.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
-
Many of the instances of so-called viviparous plants, _e. g.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
-
The interlacing forest and grassland provide a variety of habitats with an unusually rich flora and fauna, including unique endemic species such as viviparous toads.
Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire 2008
-
I counted as a female those whose vitellaria or ovaries I had seen or those whom I had seen carrying or laying eggs or live embryos (some are viviparous).
Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009
-
There are quite a lot of ichthyosaur fossils showing death during childbirth; they were viviparous.
-
There are quite a lot of ichthyosaur fossils showing death during childbirth; they were viviparous.
-
The most noteworthy species is the viviparous toad Nimbaphrynoides occidentalis (EN), which occurs in montane grasslands at 1,200-1,600 m and is one of the world's few tailless amphibians that is totally viviparous.
Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire 2008
-
It has an especially rich flora and fauna, with endemic species such as the viviparous toad and is known as a centre of plant diversity.
Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire 2008
-
Nectophrynoides viviparous (VU) occurs in the Uluguru and Udzungwa Mountains and in the Southern Highlands of eastern and southern Tanzania.
bestiary commented on the word viviparous
webster's (1828) makes this keen observation: "...as distinguished from oviparous, producing eggs, as fowls. if fowls were viviparous, it is difficult to think how the female would fly during preganancy."
July 26, 2008
sionnach commented on the word viviparous
Whatever about their viviparity or lack thereof, it appears that fowls were plural back in 1828. Is this still true?
In Italian, it appears that fowls are volatile.
Do those folks at Webster's exclude the possibility of passenger aircraft that stay aloft as well?
July 26, 2008