The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

chromosome
    n 1: a threadlike strand of DNA in the cell nucleus that carries
         the genes in a linear order; "humans have 22 chromosome
         pairs plus two sex chromosomes"