Dictionary
con•ju•ga•tion
Pronunciation: (kon"ju-gā'shun), [key]—
n.
1. Gram.
a. the inflection of verbs.
b. the whole set of inflected forms of a verb or the recital or display thereof in a fixed order:
The conjugation of the Latin verb amo
begins amō, amas, amat.
c. a class of verbs having similar sets of inflected forms:
the Latin second conjugation.
2. an act of joining:
a conjugation of related ideas.
3. the state of being joined together; union; conjunction.
4. Biol.
a. the reproductive process in ciliate protozoans in which two organisms of different mating types exchange nuclear material through a temporary area of fusion.
b. temporary union or permanent fusion as a form of sexual reproduction in certain algae and fungi, the male gametes of one organism uniting with female gametes of the other.
c. a temporary union of two bacteria, in
Escherichia and related groups, in which genetic material is transferred by migration of a plasmid, either solitary or as part of a chromosome, from one bacterium, the donor, to the other, the recipient; sometimes also including the transfer of resistance to antibiotics.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
