agamous

From a- +‎ -gamous.

agamous (not comparable)

1. Having no marital partner or pair-bonded mate; being neither monogamous (pair-bonded) nor polygamous.
   • 1935, Edward Lee Thorndike, Adult Interests:

     First culture people are strictly monogamous, not agamous or polygamous. Incidentally, it is reasonable to suppose that sex behavior is of much greater importance in the life of the people of advanced culture, owing to the large number of  […]

   • 2004, Anton Lamboj, The Cichlid Fishes of Western Africa:

     Divandu albimarginatus is a maternal mouthbrooder (latest observations demonstrated larvophilic), that does without pair-bonding (agamous or polygamous). Incubation lasted for approximately fourteen days, […]

   • 1998, Mallarapu Muni Krishna Reddy, Population and Society in India: Some Selected Readings Based on Qualitative Studies, Kanishka Publishers Distributors:

     There is of course no universal pattern: families may be nuclear or extended with agamous, monogamous or polygamous individuals.

   • 2012, David Oconner, Cichlid Fish: The Fascinationg World of Cichlid Care, David Oc, →ISBN, page 28:

     Among cichlid species, there are monogamous as well as polygamous breeders. […] Cichlids exhibit monogamy, polygyny, polyandry, and agamy. […] In agamous relationships, there is no bond formed at all. They separate from each other immediately after spawning.

2. (biology) Synonym of agamic: asexual (of reproduction: occurring without union of male and female gametes).
   • 1872, The American Naturalist: A Bi-monthly Journal Devoted to the Advancement and Correlation of the Biological Sciences, page 507:

     It is now a hundred years since the celebrated observations of O. F. Müller on agamous reproduction (gemmiparity) of the Naiades was published, and although there is no reason to question their perfect accuracy on all essential points, […]

3. (biology) Having no visible sex organs; asexual or cryptogamous.

• agamy, see that entry for more

• “agamous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.