Library / English Dictionary

CROSSBREED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: crossbred   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(genetics) an organism that is the offspring of genetically dissimilar parents or stock; especially offspring produced by breeding plants or animals of different varieties or breeds or species

Example:

a mule is a cross between a horse and a donkey

Synonyms:

cross; crossbreed; hybrid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("crossbreed" is a kind of...):

being; organism (a living thing that has (or can develop) the ability to act or function independently)

Domain category:

genetic science; genetics (the branch of biology that studies heredity and variation in organisms)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crossbreed"):

dihybrid (a hybrid produced by parents that differ only at two gene loci that have two alleles each)

monohybrid (a hybrid produced by crossing parents that are homozygous except for a single gene locus that has two alleles (as in Mendel's experiments with garden peas))

Derivation:

crossbreed (breed animals or plants using parents of different races and varieties)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Breed animals or plants using parents of different races and varieties

Example:

these species do not interbreed

Synonyms:

cross; crossbreed; hybridise; hybridize; interbreed

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "crossbreed" is one way to...):

breed (cause to procreate (animals))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "crossbreed"):

backcross (mate a hybrid of the first generation with one of its parents)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

crossbreed ((genetics) an organism that is the offspring of genetically dissimilar parents or stock; especially offspring produced by breeding plants or animals of different varieties or breeds or species)

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