From Greek zygotos 'yoked together,' from zygon 'yoke,' for the cell formed when sperm and egg are joined into one.
A cell formed by the union of a sperm and an egg, the earliest stage of a developing organism.
From Greek zygotos 'yoked, joined together,' from zygon 'yoke.' The word captures the moment two gametes are 'yoked' together into one cell. The term was introduced by German biologist Wilhelm Waldeyer in the 1880s, drawing on the same root that gives