Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

y chromosome

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.47 in modern English

Syllables
y chro-mo-some
IPA
23
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A mammalian sex chromosome: in the XY sex-determination system, cells of females typically have a pair of X chromosomes, while cells of males typically have an X and a Y.

Etymology

Named by Nettie Stevens in 1905 using the next letter in sequence following the naming by Hermann Henking in 1890 of the X chromosome. The brief resemblance in the appearance of the X and Y chromosomes to the letters "X" and "Y" respectively during cell division is entirely coincidental.

Inflected Forms

Y chromosomes (plural) Y-chromosome (alternative)

Phrases

X chromosome

Frequently Paired Words

X chromosome

Questions

What does y chromosome mean?
A mammalian sex chromosome: in the XY sex-determination system, cells of females typically have a pair of X chromosomes, while cells of males typically have an X and a Y.
Where does y chromosome come from?
Named by Nettie Stevens in 1905 using the next letter in sequence following the naming by Hermann Henking in 1890 of the X chromosome. The brief resemblance in the appearance of the X and Y chromosomes to the letters "X" and "Y" respectively during cell division is entirely coincidental.

How to pronounce y chromosome

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “y chromosome”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
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