polyploidy

From polyploid +‎ -y, after German Polyploidie.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒlɪplɔɪdi/

polyploidy (countable and uncountable, plural polyploidies)

1. (uncountable, genetics) The condition of being polyploid or the process of becoming polyploid.
   • 2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 90:

     As they mature, the DNA is replicated several times but the cell does not divide, a condition known as polyploidy which allows cells to increase in size.

   • 2014 June 28, “Double or quits”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8893:

     This propensity to polyploidy helps account for the diversity (and thus success) of flowering plants, in particular. It is also known that flowering plants sailed majestically through the life-destroying asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous period, which did for the dinosaurs and many other animals.

2. (countable, genetics) An instance of being polyploid.

• endopolyploidy

• ploidy