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het·er·og·a·my

(hĕt′ə-rŏgə-mē)

1. Alternation of sexual and parthenogenic generations, as in some aphids.

2. See anisogamy.

3. The state of having different types of flowers on the same plant, as both pistillate ray florets and staminate disk florets in a flower head.

4. Marriage between people who are different from each other, especially in their sociocultural backgrounds.

het′er·o·gamic (-rō-gămĭk) adj.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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