Adjacent Words

Mutation definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MUTA'TION, n. [L. mutatio.] The act or process of changing.
1. Change; alteration, either in form or qualities.
The vicissitude or mutations in the superior globe are no fit matter for this present argument.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: (biology) an organism that has characteristics resulting from chromosomal alteration [syn: mutant, mutation, variation, sport]
2: (genetics) any event that changes genetic structure; any alteration in the inherited nucleic acid sequence of the genotype of an organism [syn: mutation, genetic mutation, chromosomal mutation]
3: a change or alteration in form or qualities

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 14th century 1. a significant and basic alteration ; change 2. umlaut 3. a. a relatively permanent change in hereditary material involving either a physical change in chromosome relations or a biochemical change in the codons that make up genes; also the process of producing a mutation b. an individual strain or trait resulting from mutation • mutational adjective • mutationally adverb

Britannica Concise

Alteration in the genetic material of a cell that is transmitted to the cell's offspring. Mutations may be spontaneous or induced by outside factors (mutagens). They take place in the genes, occurring when one base is substituted for another in the sequence of bases that determines the genetic code, or when one or more bases are inserted or deleted from a gene. Many mutations are harmless, often masked by the presence of a dominant normal gene (see dominance). Some have serious consequences; for example, a particular mutation inherited from both parents results in sickle-cell anemia. Only mutations that occur in the sex cells (eggs or sperm) can be transmitted to the individual's offspring. Alterations caused by these mutations are usually harmful. In the rare instances in which a mutation produces a beneficial change, the percentage of organisms with this gene will tend to increase until the mutated gene becomes the norm in the population. In this way, beneficial mutations serve as the raw material of evolution.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the process or an instance of change or alteration. 2 a genetic change which, when transmitted to offspring, gives rise to heritable variations. 3 a mutant. 4 a an umlaut. b (in a Celtic language) a change of a consonant etc. determined by a preceding word. Derivatives: mutational adj. mutationally adv. Etymology: ME f. L mutatio f. mutare change

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mutation Mu*ta"tion, n. [L. mutatio, fr. mutare to change: cf. F. mutation. See Mutable.] Change; alteration, either in form or qualities. The vicissitude or mutations in the superior globe are no fit matter for this present argument. --Bacon.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mutation Mu*ta"tion, n. 1. (Biol.) Gradual definitely tending variation, such as may be observed in a group of organisms in the fossils of successive geological levels. 2. (Biol.) (a) As now employed (first by de Vries), a sudden variation (the offspring differing from its parents in some well-marked character or characters) as distinguished from a gradual variations in which the new characters become fully developed only in the course of many generations. The occurrence of mutations, and the hereditary transmission, under some conditions, of the characters so appearing, are well-established facts; whether the process has played an important part in the evolution of the existing species and other groups of organisms is a disputed question. (b) The result of the above process; a suddenly produced variation.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

see mutate

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Change, alteration, variation. 2. Change.

Moby Thesaurus

ablaut, acoustic phonetics, alteration, altering, anomaly, articulatory phonetics, avatar, betacism, catabolism, catalysis, change, changing, consubstantiation, departure, deviant, deviation, displacement, evolution, evolving, gradation, heterotopia, innovation, metabolism, metagenesis, metamorphism, metamorphosing, metamorphosis, metastasis, metathesis, metempsychosis, modification, modifying, morphophonemics, mutant, mutated form, novelty, orthoepy, permutation, phonetics, phonology, reincarnation, rhotacism, sound shift, sport, transanimation, transfiguration, transfigurement, transformation, transforming, transformism, translation, translocation, transmigration, transmogrification, transmutation, transmuting, transposition, transubstantiation, turn, umlaut, variant, variation, varying, vicissitude