Neoteny

//niˈɑːtəni// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The retention of juvenile characteristics in the adult. countable, uncountable

    "Most amphibians are aquatic only while young, but some amphibians with neoteny remain aquatic even as adults."

  2. 2
    an evolutionary trend to be born earlier so that development is cut off at an earlier stage and juvenile characteristics are retained in adults of the species wordnet
  3. 3
    The sexual maturity of an organism still in its larval stage. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
juvenilizationjuvenilizationpedomorphismpedomorphism

Example

More examples

"Most amphibians are aquatic only while young, but some amphibians with neoteny remain aquatic even as adults."

Etymology

From German Neotenie, coined in 1884 by anatomist Julius Kollmann from Ancient Greek νέος (néos, “young”) + τείνειν (teínein, “to tense”).

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