mega- /me-gə-/ (before a vowel meg- /meg-/), megal- /me-gəl-/ or megalo- /me-gə-lō-, -lo- or -lə-/

1. Meaning very big, unusually large, on a very large scale
2. In names of units, denoting a million times (10⁶)

megˈabar noun

A unit of pressure equal to a million bars

megˈabit noun (computing)

(loosely) one million bits

megˈabuck noun (N Am sl)

1. A million dollars
2. (in pl) very large sums of money

megˈabyte noun

1. (loosely) a million bytes
2. 2²⁰ bytes

megacephalous /-sefˈə-ləs/ adjective

(Gr kephalē head) large-headed

Megacheiroptera /-kīr-opˈtər-ə/ plural noun

The fruit bats

megacity /megˈə-sit-i/ noun

1. A city of over a million inhabitants
2. A very large city

megˈacurie noun

A million curies

megˈacycle noun

1. A million cycles
2. A million cycles per second

megˈadeath noun

Death of a million people, a unit in estimating casualties in nuclear war

megˈadose noun

A dose of drug, etc, far exceeding the normal amount taken

megˈadyne noun

A million dynes

megafarˈad noun

A million farads

megˈafauna (or /-föˈnə/) and megˈaflora (also /-flöˈrə/) noun

Large animals and plants respectively, visible to the naked eye

megˈaflop noun (computing)

1. A unit of processing speed equal to one million floating-point operations per second
2. A complete failure (slang)

megˈafog noun

A fog signal with megaphones pointing in several directions

megagamˈete noun

A macrogamete

megˈagauss noun

A million gauss

megˈaherbivore noun

A herbivore weighing over 1000kg, eg an elephant or rhinoceros

megˈahertz noun

A million hertz

megˈajoule noun

A million joules

megˈalith noun (Gr lithos stone; archaeology)

A huge stone, as in prehistoric monuments

megalithˈic adjective (archaeology)

Constructed with, or characterized by the use of, huge stones

megˈaloblast noun

An abnormally large nucleated red blood cell found in the bone marrow of people suffering from a megaloblasˈtic anaeˈmia such as pernicious anaemia

megalomāˈnia noun

1. The delusion that one is great or powerful
2. (loosely) a lust for power
3. A passion for possessions on a grandiose scale

megalomāˈniac noun and adjective

megalomaniacal /-mə-nīˈə-kl/ adjective

megalopˈolis noun

1. A wide-spreading, thickly-populated urban area
2. An enormous city

megalopolˈitan noun and adjective

megˈalosaur or megalosauˈrus noun (pl megˈalosaurs or megalosauˈri /-ē/)

(Gr sauros a lizard) a gigantic lizard-hipped Jurassic and Cretaceous dinosaur (genus Megalosaurus), carnivorous in habits

megalosauˈrian adjective

megamega- combining form (obsolete) same as tera-

megˈa-merger noun

A merger of two or more very large organizations

megˈanewton noun

A million newtons

megˈaparsec noun

A million parsecs

megˈapixel noun

A million pixels

megˈapode noun

(Gr pous, podos foot) a mound-bird

megˈarad noun

A million rads

megˈascope noun

(Gr skopeein to view) an instrument for projecting an enlarged image

megascopic /-skopˈik/ adjective

1. Enlarged
2. Visible to the naked eye

megasporangium /-spor-anˈji-əm/ noun (pl megasporanˈgia)

A sporangium producing only megaspores

megˈaspore noun

1. The larger of two forms of spore
2. A spore giving rise to a female gametophyte

megasporophyll /-sporˈə-fil/ noun

A sporophyll that carries or subtends only megasporangia

megˈastar noun

An exceptionally famous superstar

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