-gamy Also -gamous and -gamic.
Marriage, fertilization or reproduction.
[Greek gamos, marriage.]
Some common words in -gamy refer to human marriage customs, such as monogamy or bigamy. Others are terms from zoology or biology that relate to reproduction. For more examples, The endings -gamous and -gamic form related adjectives (monogamous, cryptogamic).
Examples of words in -gamy
Word origins are from Greek unless otherwise stated.
Relating to human marriage customs:
|bigamy||illegal marriage to more than one person at a time||Latin bi-, twice|
|endogamy||marriage only within one clan or tribe||endon, within|
|exogamy||the custom of marrying only outside one's clan or tribe||exō, outside|
|monogamy||marriage to only one person at a time||monos, alone|
|polygamy||marriage to more than one person at a time||polloi, many|
Relating to reproduction in plants or animals:
|cryptogamy||having no flowers but reproducing by spores||kruptos, hidden|
|homogamy||simultaneous maturation of the stamens and pistils of a flower, the opposite of dichogamy; inbreeding, especially as the result of isolation||homos, same; see previous section|
|karyogamy||the fusion of the nuclei of cells||karuon, kernel|
|plasmogamy||fusion of the cytoplasm of two or more cells||plasma, a thing moulded|
|syngamy||the fusion of two cells in reproduction||sun, with|
|xenogamy||fertilization of a flower by pollen from another, non-identical, plant||xenos, stranger or foreigner|