Table Of ContentHENDERSON’S
DICTIONARY OF
BIOLOGY
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HENDERSON’S
DICTIONARY OF
BIOLOGY
Sixteenth Edition
Edited by
Eleanor Lawrence
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Pearson Education Limited
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First published 1920 (print)
Eighth edition 1963 (print)
Ninth edition 1979 (print)
Tenth edition 1989 (print)
Eleventh edition 1995 (print)
Twelfth edition 2000 (print)
Thirteenth edition 2005 (print)
Fourteenth edition 2008 (print)
Fifteenth edition 2011 (print)
Sixteenth edition 2016 (print and electronic)
© Oliver and Boyd Limited 1963 (print)
© Pearson Education Limited 1979, 2011 (print)
© Pearson Education Limited 2016 (print and electronic)
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NOTE THAT ANY PAGE CROSS REFERENCES REFER TO THE PRINT EDITION
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CONTENTS
Preface to the sixteenth edition vii
Abbreviations ix
Units and conversions ix
SI prefixes xi
Greek alphabet xi
Common Latin and Greek noun endings xii
THE DICTIONARY 1–639
Appendices
1. An outline of the plant kingdom (Domain Eukarya) 641
2. An outline of the fungal kingdom (Mycetae) (Domain Eukarya) 645
3. An outline of the animal kingdom (Domain Eukarya) 647
4. An outline of the protists (Domain Eukarya) 655
5. An outline of the Domain Bacteria 657
6. An outline of the Domain Archaea 659
7. Virus families 661
8. Geological timescale 663
9. Etymological origins of some common word elements in biology 665
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PREFACE TO THE
SIXTEENTH EDITION
Since the publication of the fifteenth edition of Henderson’s Dictionary of Biological Terms
new words have entered the biological vocabulary and old ones have acquired new or more
precise usages. Progress in genetics, stem-cell biology and biotechnology continues to be
rapid, driven by the genome-sequencing programmes, bioinformatics, the use of gene manip-
ulation and advances in experimental cell biology.
The overall classification of the living world followed in this edition reflects the division of
all living things into three domains or superkingdoms – Eukaryotes, Bacteria and Archaea (the
latter two making up the prokaryotes). Entries in the body of the dictionary are given for all
the main phyla, divisions and classes of plants, fungi, animals, protists and some prokaryotes,
with some orders being included for groups such as the insects, birds, mammals and flow-
ering plants. There are also entries under many common names of organisms. The appendices
at the back give a fuller outline of the various kingdoms. The formal classifications of the
Bacteria and the Archaea are currently undergoing extensive revision to reflect relationships
derived from DNA sequence data. Viruses are covered by entries for the main groups and in
an appendix. Appendix 8 shows the geological timescale.
Terms are arranged in strict alphabetical order, disregarding hyphenation and spaces
between words, with abbreviations and acronyms included in their appropriate place within
the body of the dictionary. Numbers, Greek letters and configurational letters at the beginning
of chemical names are ignored for alphabetization purposes. Within an entry, different mean-
ings of a term are numbered and separated by semicolons. The abbreviations (bot.), (zool.),
etc. have been used in some cases to indicate more clearly which subject area a definition
refers to. Almost all the technical terms that may be used as part of a definition are defined
within the dictionary; to avoid complicating the text with excessive cross-referencing, such
terms are not generally indicated by (q.v.) within the body of an entry.
Common suffixes and prefixes derived from Latin and Greek are entered in the body of the
dictionary, along with their usual meanings, and Appendix 9 gives the etymological origins of
some common word elements.
I should like to thank the staff at Pearson Education for their help and encouragement
throughout the project. Comments concerning errors or omissions in this edition will be
greatly appreciated, so that they may be rectified in future reprints or editions.
Eleanor Lawrence
London, 2015
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ABBREvIATIONS
2D, 3D two-dimensional, three-dimensional immunol. immunology
a. adjective L. Latin
adv. adverb microbiol. microbiology
alt. alternative (synonym) mol. biol. molecular biology
anat. anatomy mycol. mycology
appl. applies or applied to n. noun
biochem. biochemistry n haploid no. of chromosomes
bioinf. bioinformatics neurobiol. neurobiology
bot. botany pert. pertaining to
ca. circa (approximately) plu. plural
cf. compare p.p.m. parts per million
dev. biol. developmental biology q.v. see
EC Enzyme Commission number (1978) r.n. Enzyme Commission recommended
e.g. for example name, where it differs from that used as
esp. especially the headword
et al. and others sing. singular
etc. and so forth sp. species (sing.)
evol. evolution spp. species (plu.)
genet. genetics v. verb
Gk Greek virol. virology
i.e. that is zool. zoology
UNITS AND CONvERSIONS
Basic SI units
ampere, A (electric current)
candela, cd (luminous intensity)
kelvin, K (temperature)
kilogram, kg (mass)
metre, m (length)
mole, mol (amount of substance)
second, s (time)
Some common derived SI units
joule, J (energy) kg m2 s−2
molar, M (concentration) mol dm−3 (mol 1−1)
newton, N (force) kg m s−2
pascal, Pa (pressure) kg m−1 s−2
volt, V (electrical potential)
watt, W (power) kg m2 s−3
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