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mutation
noun
- a changing or being changed
- a change, as in form, nature, qualities, etc.
- Biol.
- a sudden variation in some inheritable characteristic in a germ cell of an individual animal or plant, as distinguished from a variation resulting from generations of gradual change
- an individual resulting from such variation; mutant
- an abrupt and relatively permanent change in somatic cells that is transmitted only to daughter cells and can be inherited only in plants that reproduce asexually
- Linguis.
- umlaut (sense )
- alternation of consonants under specific conditions, as in variations in the initial consonant of a word in Irish and other Celtic languages
Related Forms:
- mutational adjective
- mutationally adverb
See mutation in American Heritage Dictionary 4
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