Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

x chromosome

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.47 in modern English

Syllables: x chro-mo-some
IPA

27

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 Hermann Henking in 1890 from x (signifying the unknown) due to some baffling properties he had observed. 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

X chromosomes (plural) X-chromosome (alternative)

Phrases

X-linked trait Y chromosome

Frequently Paired Words

X-linked trait Y chromosome

Questions

What does x 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 x chromosome come from?: Named by Hermann Henking in 1890 from x (signifying the unknown) due to some baffling properties he had observed. 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 x chromosome

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