mosaic1
/mə(ʊ)ˈzeɪɪk
/noun
1A picture or pattern produced by arranging together small pieces of stone, tile, glass, etc. mosaics on the interior depict scenes from the Old Testament [mass noun]: the walls and vaults are decorated by marble and mosaic...
- For floor mosaics, stone remained the dominant material.
- After the war he returned to easel painting and was also active as a book and magazine illustrator and as a designer of mosaics and stained glass.
- The themes of heraldry, religion, astronomy, astrology and the natural world are expressed in murals, mosaics, stained glass, intricate woodwork and stone and marble carvings.
1.1A colourful and variegated pattern: the bird’s plumage was a mosaic of slate-grey, blue, and brown...
- In a contest for space, some of the anemones, sponges and barnacles sit on top of each other, creating a mosaic of contrasting colours.
- The ground was a mosaic of colours, as if haphazardly thrown together by a careless artist.
- The valley drops away below in a mosaic of yellow grass and green pastureland, and in the distance the sun glints off the Pacific Ocean.
1.2A combination of diverse elements forming a more or less coherent whole: a cultural mosaic...
- Smith's profile of Muslims and Muslim communities reveals the rich mosaic of diverse ethnic groups of immigrants and converts.
- We are sensitive also to the values that ensure that our nation, a mosaic of diverse cultures and faiths, survives and thrives.
- We go further when we revitalize the bonds of the social connection by making kin of strangers, by embracing diversity that enriches the mosaic of our national unity.
1.3An arrangement of photosensitive elements in a television camera.Their camera used a light-sensitive mosaic that was discharged pixel by pixel as an electron beam scanned it, the discharge current intensity being proportional to the light falling on the dot.
2 Biology An individual (especially an animal) composed of cells of two genetically different types.For example, some people are mosaics: Different cells in their body have different chromosomes....
- Not even the almighty gene provided any clear answers, since it was discovered that I was a mosaic, with some cells in my body having the XY genotype and others having XO.
- In addition, any one individual is actually a mixture, or mosaic, of DNA, half from each parent.
3 (also mosaic disease) A virus disease that results in leaf variegation in tobacco, maize, sugar cane, and other plants.On the right is a micrograph of the virus that causes tobacco mosaic disease in tobacco plants....
- However, its high susceptibility to sugar cane mosaic virus precludes its agronomical use.
- Tobacco mosaic is a virus that mottles leaves, stunts plants, and reduces yields.
verb (mosaics, mosaicking, mosaicked) [with object]
1Decorate with a mosaic: (as adjective mosaicked) the mosaicked swimming pool...
- Apart from an amusing shower scene, the action is remarkably stark in setting, confined mainly to the mosaicked floor of a palazzo whose crumbling foundations, strewn with old bones, reveal past grim deeds.
1.1Combine (distinct or disparate elements) to form a picture or pattern: the digital data were combined, or mosaicked, to delineate counties...
- To make a high-resolution image, we must mosaic many high-resolution images.
- Once the images are ordered they were georeferenced, then mosaicked together.
adjective Biology
Denoting an individual composed of cells of two genetically different types.Three alleles were chosen for the generation of mosaic clones on the basis of availability of cytological, genetic, and molecular data, as follows....
- The development of mosaic flies clearly illustrates the cell autonomy of sex determination in the somatic cells of Drosophila.
- Two lines were unusual in that mutant males regularly produced mosaic progeny that had large patches of somatic tissue lacking the paternal fourth chromosome.
Derivatives
mosaicist
/ noun ...- Taking clues from faded documents, Mr Greenwood has linked the colourful works of art to the Italian mosaicist Gaetano Meo, whose work can also be seen at St Paul's Cathedral and at Westminster Cathedral.
- His style is that of a pointillist or mosaicist, painstakingly filling in a picture.
- Cirencester may have been the base for a ‘school’ of mosaicists serving the Cotswold region.
Origin
Late Middle English: from French mosaïque, based on Latin musi(v)um decoration with small square stones, perhaps ultimately from Greek mousa 'a muse'.
Rhymes
Mosaic2
/mə(ʊ)ˈzeɪɪk/adjective
Of or associated with Moses.In the Old Testament, it was part of the Mosaic code that an Israelite could not be indicted and convicted based upon the testimony of one person....
- Of a critical turn of mind, he let drop a hint that there might be some doubt as to the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch; the hint was picked up six centuries later by Spinoza and led to modern Bible criticism.
- Then model your worship on the Mosaic tabernacle and priesthood.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from French mosaïque or modern Latin Mosaicus.