What does "centromere" mean?

The central region of a eukaryotic chromosome where the kinetochore is assembled.

What is a synonym for "centromere"?

Common synonyms include: chromosome, kinetochore, kinomere.

Pronounced //ˈsɛntɹəˌmiɚ//.

//ˈsɛntɹəˌmiɚ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The central region of a eukaryotic chromosome where the kinetochore is assembled.
"The aberrant bivalents with single terminal chiasmata are specially liable to this failure of orientation, presumably because their centromeres lie exceptionally far apart, as is the case in similar circumstances in a Lilium hybrid with reduced chiasma-frequency."
2
a specialized condensed region of each chromosome that appears during mitosis where the chromatids are held together to form an X shape wordnet

"Each chromosome has a constriction point called the centromere, which divides the chromosome into two sections, or “arms.”"

Borrowed from German Centromer, corresponding to centro- + -mere (from Ancient Greek μέρος (méros, “part”)).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.