noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The tangled mass of strands of chromatin seen in the early stages of mitosis, originally believed to be a single continuous strand (or two in a diploid cell, etc.) dated

Synonyms

All synonyms

skein

Etymology

From Ancient Greek σπείραμα (speírama, “convolution”), ultimately from σπεῖρα (speîra). Probably influenced by -eme.

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