Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Chromosome \Chro"mo*some`\, n. [Gr. ? color + ? the body.]
   (Biol.)
   One of the minute bodies into which the chromatin of the
   nucleus is resolved during mitotic cell division; the {idant}
   of Weismann.

Source : WordNet®

chromosome
     n : a threadlike body in the cell nucleus that carries the genes
         in a linear order