Development
//dɪˈvɛl.əp.mənt// noun
noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The process of developing; growth, directed change. uncountable
"The development of this story has been slow."
- 2 act of improving by expanding or enlarging or refining wordnet
- 3 The process by which a mature multicellular organism or part of an organism is produced by the addition of new cells. uncountable
"The organism has reached a crucial stage in its development."
- 4 the act of making some area of land or water more profitable or productive or useful wordnet
- 5 Something which has developed. countable
"Our news team brings you the latest developments."
Show 15 more definitions
- 6 (music) the section of a composition or movement (especially in sonata form) where the major musical themes are developed and elaborated wordnet
- 7 A project consisting of one or more commercial or residential buildings. countable
- 8 a recent event that has some relevance for the present situation wordnet
- 9 The building of such a project. uncountable
- 10 a district that has been developed to serve some purpose wordnet
- 11 The application of new ideas to practical problems (cf. research). uncountable
"Our development department has produced three new adhesives this year."
- 12 processing a photosensitive material in order to make an image visible wordnet
- 13 The active placement of the pieces, or the process of achieving it. uncountable
"White's development is good, but black's has been hampered by the pawn on e5."
- 14 a process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage) wordnet
- 15 The process by in which previous material is transformed and restated. countable, uncountable
- 16 (biology) the process of an individual organism growing organically; a purely biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level wordnet
- 17 The second section of a piece of music in sonata form, in which the original theme is revisited in altered and varying form. countable, uncountable
- 18 a state in which things are improving; the result of developing (as in the early part of a game of chess) wordnet
- 19 The expression of a function in the form of a series. countable, uncountable
- 20 The processing of photographic film so as to bring out the images latent in it. countable, uncountable
"I sent the film to a specialist lab for development."
Example
More examples"The goal of education is not wealth or status, but personal development."
Etymology
From French développement, from Old French desvelopemens (“unrolling”). By surface analysis, develop + -ment. First attested in 1756.
Related phrases
More for "development"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.