An organism that exists primarily in a haploid state, with only a brief diploid phase in its life cycle.
From Greek 'haplous' (single) + '-ont' (a suffix meaning 'being' or 'organism'). Coined in 20th-century biology to classify organisms by their chromosomal states.
Many algae and fungi are haplonts, meaning they spend most of their lives as singles (haploid) and only briefly pair up (diploid) to make spores—opposite of what humans do!
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