# meiosis

> English word · Noun · IPA /maɪˈəʊ.sɪs/ · frequency rank #49,486

## Definitions
1. A figure of speech whereby something is made to seem smaller or less important than it actually is.
2. Cell division of a diploid cell into four haploid cells, which develop to produce gametes.

## Etymology
From Ancient Greek μείωσις (meíōsis, “a lessening”), from μειόω (meióō, “I lessen”), from μείων (meíōn, “less”). The biological sense was coined by British biologists John Bretland Farmer and John Edmund Sharrock Moore in 1905 as maiosis in a paper in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Science, with the spelling corrected on etymological grounds later that year. Doublet of miosis.

## Easily confused with
- **mitosis** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meiosis-vs-mitosis)

## Common misspellings (9)
`emiosis`, `meioiss`, `meiosiss`, `meiossi`, `meiossis`, `meisois`, `meoisis`, `mieosis`, `mmeiosis`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/meiosis