Ova

How to spell ova

3 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce ova

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ova mean?

1. nounThe plural of ovum: the female reproductive cells, or eggs, produced by an animal or human.

Ova in a sentence

• The biology lecture explained how human ova mature within the ovaries.

• Under the microscope the students counted dozens of fish ova in the sample.

Where does ova come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is the plural of ovum, taken directly from the Latin ovum, which simply meant 'egg'. In Latin the neuter noun ovum formed its plural as ova, and English biology kept that classical inflection rather than adding an English '-s'. The Latin root is connected to the same ancient family that gave Greek its word for egg, and it survives in everyday English through 'oval' (egg shaped) and 'ovary' (the organ that produces eggs). The form entered scientific and medical English in the 1700s as anatomists and naturalists adopted Latin for precise description, and it has stayed firmly in that technical register. The trap for writers is exactly that Latin plural: the singular is ovum, but more than one are ova, not 'ovums'.

How the word is built

• ov- (from Latin ovum: egg)
• -a (Latin neuter plural ending)