English edit

Etymology edit

From polyploid +‎ -y, after German Polyploidie.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

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.

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