Hypertext Webster Gateway: "fission"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Fission \Fis"sion\, n. [L. fissio. See {Fissure}.]
1. A cleaving, splitting, or breaking up into parts.

2. (Biol.) A method of asexual reproduction among the lowest
(unicellular) organisms by means of a process of
self-division, consisting of gradual division or cleavage
of the into two parts, each of which then becomes a
separate and independent organisms; as when a cell in an
animal or plant, or its germ, undergoes a spontaneous
division, and the parts again subdivide. See
{Segmentation}, and {Cell division}, under {Division}.

3. (Zo["o]l.) A process by which certain coral polyps,
echinoderms, annelids, etc., spontaneously subdivide, each
individual thus forming two or more new ones. See
{Strobilation}.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

fission
n 1: a nuclear reaction in which a massive nucleus splits into
smaller nuclei with the simultaneous release of energy
[syn: {nuclear fission}]
2: reproduction of some unicellular organisms by division of
the cell into two more or less equal parts


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