eukaryote
noun
eu·kary·ote
| \ (ˌ)yü-ˈker-ē-ˌōt
, -ət
, -ˈka-rē-\
, -ət
, -ˈka-rē-\
variants:
or less commonly eucaryote
Definition of eukaryote
: any of a domain (Eukarya) or a higher taxonomic group (Eukaryota) above the kingdom that includes organisms composed of one or more cells containing visibly evident nuclei and organelles — compare archaea, bacterium, prokaryote
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Examples of eukaryote in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Welcome to Asgard Complex cells, called eukaryotes, carry a mixture of three types of genes. — John Timmer, Ars Technica, "We’ve finally gotten a look at the microbe that might have been our ancestor," 7 Aug. 2019 Like their nucleus-deficient prokaryotic brethren, eukaryotes are challenging to grow in culture. — Carrie Arnold, WIRED, "A Blazing Hot Coal Seam Shows How Microbes Can Spring to Life," 21 Apr. 2019 Mitochondria may have been born early in the evolution of eukaryotes. — Quanta Magazine, "Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex Life," 29 Oct. 2015 Broad’s team, led by Feng Zhang, published a paper that described its success in eukaryotes in January 2013. — Jon Cohen, Science | AAAS, "Surprise patent ruling revives high-stakes dispute over the genome editor CRISPR," 26 June 2019 But archaea and eukaryotes turn out to be similar in other respects, and archaea are unique in yet others. — David P. Barash, WSJ, "‘The Tangled Tree’ Review: From Tiny Seeds," 9 Aug. 2018 But things changed with the evolution of eukaryotes more than 2.5 billion years ago. — Jon Kelvey, Smithsonian, "The Evolution of Sex Could Have Provided a Defense Against Cancer Cells," 11 June 2019 Bacteria were more prevalent than eukaryotes and archaea, although this finding could be biased by the relative lack of eukaryotic sequences in public databases. — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, "Ahh, summer—ramlibacter season," 14 Nov. 2018 Mitochondria must have evolved in the common ancestor of eukaryotes, some 1.8 billion years ago. — Carl Zimmer, STAT, "Shot through with microbes: How our bodies adapt to a hidden world of bacteria," 30 May 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'eukaryote.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for eukaryote
eukaryote
noun
eu·kary·ote
variants:
also eucaryote \ (ˈ)yü-ˈkar-ē-ˌōt
, -ē-ət
\
, -ē-ət
\
Medical Definition of eukaryote
: any of a domain (Eukarya) or a higher taxonomic group (Eukaryota) above the kingdom that includes organisms composed of one or more cells containing visibly evident nuclei and organelles — compare prokaryote
Other Words from eukaryote
eukaryotic
also eucaryotic \ -ˌkar-ē-ˈät-ik
\
adjective
\
adjective