Meiosis
WordNet
noun
(1) Understatement for rhetorical effect (especially when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary)
"Saying `I was not a little upset' when you mean `I was very upset' is an example of litotes"
(2) (genetics) cell division that produces reproductive cells in sexually reproducing organisms; the nucleus divides into four nuclei each containing half the chromosome number (leading to gametes in animals and spores in plants)
WiktionaryText
Etymology
Modern Latin, from (meiōsis) "a lessening" < (meioō) "I lessen" < (meiōn) "less".
Noun
- a figure of speech whereby something is made to seem smaller or less important than it is
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- 1965: I knew, with one of those secret knowledges that can exist between two people, that her suicide was a direct result of my having told her of my own attempt – I had told it with a curt meiosis that was meant to conceal depths; and she had called my bluff one final time. — John Fowles, The Magus
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- Cell division of a diploid cell into four haploid cells, which develop to produce gametes.