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Glite Dictionary
dizygotic twin

dizygotic twin

1 7.5
A twin who comes from a different egg and is not identical to the other twin
  • noun
  • /ˌdaɪzɪˈɡɒtɪk twɪn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : gemelo dizigótico
  • An early study (Kallman, 1952) of monozygotic and dizygotic twins found a 100% concordance rate in all 37 pairs of monozygotic twins for exclusive homosexuality.

You can calculate this by comparing monozygotic identical twins with fraternal dizygotic twins.

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Examples

  • In contrast, among dizygotic twins, no more related to each other genetically than ordinary siblings, the concordance rate is only 33 percent.

    Academic text (1997)

  • So you are a girl, you're a dizygotic twin, and you can have a sibling who is either a sister or a brother.

  • Then do dizygotic twins, which share the intrauterine environment but only share half of their genes on average like fraternal siblings do.

    Triggernometry

  • Bailey and Pillard (1991) published their study to considerable argument over their finding of a 52% concordance for homosexuality among monozygotic twins and 22% among dizygotic twins.

    Academic text (2008)

  • My brother and I are dizygotic twins, which means we developed from separate fertilized eggs.

  • Unlike monozygotic twins, dizygotic twins can have different physical traits because they are genetically distinct.

  • Dizygotic twins share about 50% of their genes and can be either the same sex or different sexes.

Synonyms

fraternal twin
vsdizygotic twin
4 3.1

One of two children born at the same time from different eggs who may look different and be different sexes

is defined by being genetically distinct because each comes from a separate fertilized egg

Surface Forms

dizygotic twin singular
dizygotic twins plural

Morphology

dizygotic + twin

The term is a straightforward adjective + noun combination: knowing 'dizygotic' (twins developed from separate eggs) and 'twin' allows a learner to compose the meaning of 'one of two twins from separate fertilized eggs, genetically distinct.' This is a literal, technical composition that follows normal English noun modification patterns and is cross-linguistically paralleled, so the meaning is directly derivable from its parts.

Etymology

Dizygotic twin The noun dizygotic twin comes from the simple idea that the two babies grew from two separate eggs; each egg makes its own baby. That's why a dizygotic twin is like a regular brother or sister born at the same time and is 'not identical' to the other twin.