Dioic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing a plant species having two distinct types of reproductive organs, typically with male and female flowers on separate individuals; relating to substances or chemical compounds containing two acid groups; characterizing organisms or conditions involving dual sexual forms
2. Referring to organisms or plants that possess separate male and female individuals producing reproductive cells; pertaining to chemicals with two acid functional groups; indicating biological systems involving two distinct reproductive types
3. Indicating botanical species that produce male and female flowers on different plants; relating to molecules with a pair of acidic groups; describing entities with two separate sexual reproductive structures or forms

Etymology: "Dioic" is built from two Greek elements: "dis", meaning "twice" or "two", and "oikos", meaning "house" or "household". The botanical sense is literal. In a dioic plant, male and female reproductive organs are borne on separate individuals, as if each sex kept its own household. The term is a technical coinage from classical roots, so it was not used by ancient Greek writers in this sense. The same "two" element explains the chemical sense. A dioic acid has two acid groups, and the prefix "di-" simply counts them. The word thus carries the same numerical idea across two very different fields: counting separate households in a plant, and counting functional groups in a molecule.

Synonyms: dioecious

Antonyms: monoic