| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
| mutation |
| |
| SYLLABICATION: | mu·ta·tion |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  my -t  sh n |
| NOUN: | 1. The act or process of being altered or changed. 2. An alteration or change, as in nature, form, or quality. 3. Genetics a. A change of the DNA sequence within a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new character or trait not found in the parental type. b. The process by which such a change occurs in a chromosome, either through an alteration in the nucleotide sequence of the DNA coding for a gene or through a change in the physical arrangement of a chromosome. c. A mutant. 4. Linguistics The change that is caused in a sound by its assimilation to another sound, such as umlaut. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English mutacioun, from Old French mutacion, from Latin m tti , mttin-, from past participle of mtre, to change. See mutate. | | OTHER FORMS: | mu·tation·al —ADJECTIVE
mu·tation·al·ly —ADVERB
| | |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
