Meristem

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The plant tissue composed of totipotent cells that allows plant growth.

    "By looking back at a past populated by beings of grotesque difference, humans could place themselves at the apical meristem—the growing tip—of the future."

  2. 2
    undifferentiated tissue from which new cells are formed, as at the tip of a stem or root wordnet

Example

More examples

"By looking back at a past populated by beings of grotesque difference, humans could place themselves at the apical meristem—the growing tip—of the future."

Etymology

From German Meristem, from Ancient Greek μεριστός (meristós, “divided”), from μερίζω (merízō), from μέρος (méros) + στέμμα (stémma, “wreath, garland”). First used in 1858 by Swiss botanist Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli (1817–1891).

Related phrases

adaxial meristemapical meristemintercalary meristemlateral meristemplate meristem

More for "meristem"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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