Mitosis produces two identical cells with a full set of chromosomes, while meiosis produces four sex cells with only half the chromosomes of the parent cell. A memory hook: mitosis keeps your skin and other tissues replaced day to day, while meiosis is the special division behind reproduction.
The core difference
Mitosis makes two identical cells for growth and repair; meiosis makes four genetically varied sex cells with half the chromosome number.
- mitosis — ordinary cell division producing two identical cells: skin cells are replaced constantly through mitosis.
- meiosis — division that produces four sex cells with half the chromosomes, shuffling genetic material along the way: meiosis halves the chromosome number so that fertilisation restores it.
How to tell them apart
The names themselves offer a clue: mitosis comes from the Greek for "thread", after the thread-like look of chromosomes as they line up for an ordinary split into two identical cells. Meiosis comes from the Greek for "a lessening", which fits its job of halving the chromosome count across two rounds of division to make four sex cells.
The mix-up shows up most in biology classes, where both words look and sound similar and both involve dividing chromosomes. Worth noting that meiosis has other, unrelated meanings too: in rhetoric it means deliberately understating something for effect, and in medicine "miosis" (a near-homophone) refers to the pupil narrowing.
