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Embryo

//ˈɛmbɹi.əʊ// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    In the reproductive cycle, the stage after the fertilization of the egg that precedes the development into a fetus.

    "SE onset depends on a complex network of interactions among plant growth regulators, mainly auxins and cytokinins, during the proembryogenic early stages, and ethylene and gibberellic and abscisic acids later in the development of somatic embryos."

  2. 2
    an animal organism in the early stages of growth and differentiation that in higher forms merge into fetal stages but in lower forms terminate in commencement of larval life wordnet
  3. 3
    An organism in the earlier stages of development before it emerges from the egg, or before metamorphosis.
  4. 4
    (botany) a minute rudimentary plant contained within a seed or an archegonium wordnet
  5. 5
    In a viviparous animal, the young animal's earliest stages in the mother's body.
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  1. 6
    In a human, usually the cell growth of the child within the mother's body, through the end of the seventh week of pregnancy.
  2. 7
    A rudimentary plant contained in the seed.
  3. 8
    The beginning; the first stage of anything. figuratively

    "[…]while the Company little ſuſpected what a noble Work I had then in Embryo […]"

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin embryō, from Ancient Greek ἔμβρυον (émbruon, “fetus”), from ἐν (en, “in-”) + βρύω (brúō, “I grow, swell”). Possibly related to Hebrew עֻבָּר (“fetus, embryo”) (ʊbar).

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