apoptosis
/ˌæ.pəˈtoʊ.sɪs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.99 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "The term apoptosis is proposed for a hitherto little recognized mechanism of controlled cell deletion, which appears to play a complementary but opposite role to mitosis in the regulation of animal cell populations."
- "Indeed, so important is apoptosis that it is gradually becoming clear that almost all therapeutic cancer treatment works only because it induces apoptosis by alerting p53 and its colleagues."
- "Apoptosis is routine in developmental processes such as the removal of webbing between fingers in humans, the loss of tadpole tails in amphibians, and insect metamorphosis."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó Proto-Hellenic *apó Ancient Greek ᾰ̓πό (ăpó) Ancient Greek ἀπο- (apo-) Ancient Greek πῑ́πτω (pī́ptō) Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Hellenic *-tis Ancient Greek -τῐς (-tĭs) Ancient Greek -σῐς (-sĭs) Ancient Greek -ωσῐς (-ōsĭs) Ancient Greek πτῶσις (ptôsis) Ancient Greek ἀπόπτωσις (apóptōsis)bor. English apoptosis From Ancient Greek ἀπόπτωσις (apóptōsis, “a falling off”), from ἀπό (apó, “away from”) + πτῶσις (ptôsis, “falling”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌæ.pəˈtoʊ.sɪs/
- British English: /ˌapɒpˈtəʊsɪs/