Chromosome

How to spell chromosome

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce chromosome

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does chromosome mean?

1. nounA thread-like structure within a cell nucleus that carries genetic information in the form of genes.

Chromosome in a sentence

• Each human cell normally contains a full set of every chromosome inherited from both parents.

• The biology lecture explained how a single chromosome can hold thousands of genes.

Where does chromosome come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Chromosome was deliberately coined in 1888 by the German anatomist Heinrich Wilhelm Waldeyer, who stitched together two Greek roots: khroma, meaning 'colour', and soma, meaning 'body'. The name was apt because these thread-like structures inside the cell nucleus soaked up the laboratory dyes of the day and showed up as deeply stained 'coloured bodies' under the microscope. The colour root khroma also gives us familiar relatives such as 'chrome', 'chromatic', and 'monochrome', while soma survives in words like 'psychosomatic'. English borrowed the term almost immediately as the new science of genetics took shape around the turn of the twentieth century. The spelling trap lies in that opening 'chr-' (pronounced like a hard k) and the silent flow of the unstressed middle, both inheritances from the Greek that learners often blur.

How the word is built

• chromo- (from Greek khroma: colour)
• -some (from Greek soma: body)