different between oviparous vs viviparous

English

Etymology

From Latin oviparus, ovo- “egg” + pari? (“give birth, produce, bring forth”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???v?p???s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /o??v?p???s/

Adjective

oviparous (not comparable)

1. Egg-laying; depositing eggs that develop and hatch outside the body as a reproductive strategy.

   The echidna is a monotreme, which is the extremely small subset of oviparous mammals.

   • 1643, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend [1]

     And though it might be thought that all animals who have lungs do cough; yet in cataceous fishes, who have large and strong lungs, the same is not observed; nor yet in oviparous quadrupeds: and in the greatest thereof, the crocodile, although we read much of their tears, we find nothing of that motion.

Related terms

• ovoviviparous

Translations

See also

• viviparous

Anagrams

• apivorous

English

Alternative forms

• vivipartous (rare)

Etymology

From Latin v?viparus, from v?vus (“alive, life, living”) + pari? (“give birth, produce, bring forth”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /v??v?p???s/

Adjective

viviparous (not comparable)

1. (of an animal or animal species) Being born alive, as are most mammals, some reptiles, and a few fish (as opposed to being laid as an egg and subsequently hatching, as do most birds and many other species).
2. (of a plant or plant species) Arising from an embryo that develops from the outset (rather than from a true seed that then germinates).

Antonyms

• (of an animal): oviparous

Derived terms

Translations