polyspermicadj.
/ˌpɒlɪˈspəːmɪk/, U.S. /ˌpɑliˈspərmɪk/ Biology.
Involving or exhibiting polyspermy.
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polyspermic1890
1890 J. S. Billings National Med. Dict. II. 368/2 Polyspermic, requiring more than one spermatozoon to fructify the egg.
1894 Anatomischer Anzeiger 9 146 Stained preparations of these eggs show them to be, previous to division, polyspermic.
1953 Austral. Jrnl. Biol. Sci. 6 674 In the polyspermic rat egg, the chromosome complements from the female pronucleus and the male pronuclei all take part in the formation of the first cleavage spindle.
1975 Nature 8 May 112/1 Since silkworms are polyspermic the opportunity then arises for two different male pronuclei to fuse and form a diploid zygote nucleus.
1998 Amer. Naturalist 152 290/2 Up to 7% of eggs were polyspermic in a natural population of free-spawning (fucoid) algae.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1890