The term "homozygous" refers to an organism that has two identical alleles for a specific gene. Alleles are different versions of a gene that can determine traits, such as eye color or flower color in plants. When an organism inherits the same allele from both parents, it is considered homozygous for that trait. For example, if a plant has two alleles for purple flowers, it is homozygous for the flower color gene. In contrast, if it has one allele for purple flowers and another for white flowers, it is termed heterozygous. Understanding homozygosity is important in fields like genetics and breeding.