What does "hemimetabolism" mean?

Incomplete metamorphosis; the mode of development of certain insects that includes three distinct stages: egg, nymph, and imago (adult).

Hemimetabolism

Common synonyms include: hemimetaboly, hemimetaboly, hemimetamorphosis, hemimetamorphosis, paurometabolism, paurometabolism.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Incomplete metamorphosis; the mode of development of certain insects that includes three distinct stages: egg, nymph, and imago (adult). uncountable
2
incomplete or partial metamorphosis in insects wordnet

From hemi- + metabolism.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.