parthenogenesis

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   reproduction in which an embryo develops from an unfertilized egg

   Some aphids alternate sexual reproduction with parthenogenesis during the warmer months.

2. 2
   noun

   figurative: the production of something without the usual external source or partner

   The critic joked that each error generated another by a kind of intellectual parthenogenesis.

Formed from Greek parthenos, 'virgin,' + genesis, 'origin, creation, or generation.' The biological term denotes development from an unfertilized egg and was later extended figuratively to seemingly self-generated ideas or events.

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