heterozygote
noun
heterozygote is spelled H-E-T-E-R-O-Z-Y-G-O-T-E: 12 letters. It appears about once in every 28 million words in written English, the 161,690th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, heterozygote means “A diploid individual that has different alleles at one or more genetic loci” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of heterozygote is heterozygotes.
How many letters and syllables are in heterozygote?
| Letters | 12: H-E-T-E-R-O-Z-Y-G-O-T-E |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 28 million words; the 161,690th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is heterozygote?
Heterozygote appears about once in every 28 million words in written English, the 161,690th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce heterozygote?
- US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-heterozygote.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of heterozygote
- heterozygotes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does heterozygote mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A diploid individual that has different alleles at one or more genetic loci.
- 2
A bacteriophage that has two different copies of its genetic material and so produces two types of offspring.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Heterozygote in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a diploid individual that has different alleles at one or more genetic loci:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | hétérozygote |
| German | Heterozygot |
| Portuguese | heterozigoto |
| Spanish | heterocigoto |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does heterozygote come from?
From hetero- + zygote. Coined by English biologists William Bateson and Edith Rebecca Saunders in 1902, in a paper titled "The facts of heredity in the light of Mendel’s discovery".
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).