DEVELOPMENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does development mean? 

• DEVELOPMENT (noun)
  The noun DEVELOPMENT has 9 senses:

1. act of improving by expanding or enlarging or refining

2. a process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage)

3. (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

4. a recent event that has some relevance for the present situation

5. the act of making some area of land or water more profitable or productive or useful

6. a district that has been developed to serve some purpose

7. a state in which things are improving; the result of developing (as in the early part of a game of chess)

8. processing a photosensitive material in order to make an image visible

9. (music) the section of a composition or movement (especially in sonata form) where the major musical themes are developed and elaborated

  Familiarity information: DEVELOPMENT used as a noun is familiar.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEVELOPMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Act of improving by expanding or enlarging or refining

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

they funded research and development

Hypernyms ("development" is a kind of...):

improvement (the act of improving something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "development"):

broadening (the action of making broader)

elaboration; working out (developing in intricate and painstaking detail)

product development (improving an existing product or developing new kinds of products)

advancement; progress (gradual improvement or growth or development)

Derivation:

develop (become technologically advanced)

develop (make something new, such as a product or a mental or artistic creation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

development; evolution

Context example:

the slow development of her skill as a writer

Hypernyms ("development" is a kind of...):

physical process; process (a sustained phenomenon or one marked by gradual changes through a series of states)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "development"):

growth (a progression from simpler to more complex forms)

flowering; unfolding (a developmental process)

deepening (a process of becoming deeper and more profound)

assibilation (the development of a consonant phoneme into a sibilant)

Derivation:

develop (grow emotionally or mature)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

development; growing; growth; maturation; ontogenesis; ontogeny

Context example:

he proposed an indicator of osseous development in children

Hypernyms ("development" is a kind of...):

biological process; organic process (a process occurring in living organisms)

Meronyms (parts of "development"):

gastrulation (the process in which a gastrula develops from a blastula by the inward migration of cells)

Domain category:

biological science; biology (the science that studies living organisms)

Domain member category:

isometry (the growth rates in different parts of a growing organism are the same)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "development"):

psychogenesis (the development in the life of an individual of some disorder that is caused by psychological rather than physiological factors)

life cycle (the course of developmental changes in an organism from fertilized zygote to maturity when another zygote can be produced)

masculinisation; masculinization; virilisation; virilization (the abnormal development of male sexual characteristics in a female (usually as the result of hormone therapies or adrenal malfunction))

morphogenesis (differentiation and growth of the structure of an organism (or a part of an organism))

myelinisation; myelinization (the development of a myelin sheath around a nerve fiber)

neurogenesis (the development of nerve tissues)

palingenesis; recapitulation (emergence during embryonic development of various characters or structures that appeared during the evolutionary history of the strain or species)

proliferation (growth by the rapid multiplication of parts)

psychogenesis (a general term for the origin and development of almost any aspect of the mind)

vegetation (the process of growth in plants)

cohesion ((botany) the process in some plants of parts growing together that are usually separate (such as petals))

psychomotor development (progressive acquisition of skills involving both mental and motor activities)

psychosexual development ((psychoanalysis) the process during which personality and sexual behavior mature through a series of stages: first oral stage and then anal stage and then phallic stage and then latency stage and finally genital stage)

rooting (the process of putting forth roots and beginning to grow)

suppression (the failure to develop some part or organ)

dentition; odontiasis; teething (the eruption through the gums of baby teeth)

teratogenesis (the development of defects in an embryo)

intussusception ((biology) growth in the surface area of a cell by the deposit of new particles between existing particles in the cell wall)

culture ((biology) the growing of microorganisms in a nutrient medium (such as gelatin or agar))

amelogenesis (the developmental process of forming tooth enamel)

angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels)

apposition ((biology) growth in the thickness of a cell wall by the deposit of successive layers of material)

auxesis (growth from increase in cell size without cell division)

anthesis; blossoming; efflorescence; florescence; flowering; inflorescence (the time and process of budding and unfolding of blossoms)

caenogenesis; cainogenesis; cenogenesis; kainogenesis; kenogenesis (introduction during embryonic development of characters or structure not present in the earlier evolutionary history of the strain or species (such as the addition of the placenta in mammalian evolution))

cultivation (the process of fostering the growth of something)

cytogenesis; cytogeny (the origin and development and variation of cells)

foliation; leafing ((botany) the process of forming leaves)

fructification (the bearing of fruit)

gametogenesis (the development and maturation of sex cells through meiosis)

germination; sprouting (the process whereby seeds or spores sprout and begin to grow)

habit (the general form or mode of growth (especially of a plant or crystal))

infructescence (the fruiting stage of the inflorescence)

juvenescence (the process of growing into a youth)

Antonym:

nondevelopment (failure of normal development to occur)

Derivation:

develop (come to have or undergo a change of (physical features and attributes))

develop (grow, progress, unfold, or evolve through a process of evolution, natural growth, differentiation, or a conducive environment)

developmental (of or relating to or constituting development)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A recent event that has some relevance for the present situation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

what a revolting development!

Hypernyms ("development" is a kind of...):

alteration; change; modification (an event that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "development"):

turn; turn of events; twist (an unforeseen development)

phenomenon (a remarkable development)

complication; ramification (a development that complicates a situation)

Derivation:

develop (happen)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The act of making some area of land or water more profitable or productive or useful

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

development; exploitation

Context example:

the exploitation of copper deposits

Hypernyms ("development" is a kind of...):

employment; exercise; usage; use; utilisation; utilization (the act of using)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "development"):

electrification (the act of providing electricity)

unitisation; unitization (the joint development of a petroleum resource that straddles territory controlled by different companies)

commercialisation; commercialization (the act of commercializing something; involving something in commerce)

capitalisation; capitalization (the act of capitalizing on an opportunity)

overexploitation; overuse; overutilisation; overutilization (exploitation to the point of diminishing returns)

water development; water program; water project (making an area of water more useful)

land development (making an area of land more useful)

Derivation:

develop (change the use of and make available or usable)

Sense 6

Meaning:

A district that has been developed to serve some purpose

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Context example:

such land is practical for small park developments

Hypernyms ("development" is a kind of...):

district; dominion; territorial dominion; territory (a region marked off for administrative or other purposes)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "development"):

housing development (a residential area of similar dwellings built by property developers and usually under a single management)

housing estate (a residential area where the houses were all planned and built at the same time)

Derivation:

develop (change the use of and make available or usable)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A state in which things are improving; the result of developing (as in the early part of a game of chess)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

in chess your should take care of your development before moving your queen

Hypernyms ("development" is a kind of...):

improvement; melioration (a condition superior to an earlier condition)

Domain category:

chess; chess game (a board game for two players who move their 16 pieces according to specific rules; the object is to checkmate the opponent's king)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "development"):

underdevelopment (state of inadequate development)

Derivation:

develop (move into a strategically more advantageous position)

develop (move one's pieces into strategically more advantageous positions)

Sense 8

Meaning:

Processing a photosensitive material in order to make an image visible

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

developing; development

Context example:

the development and printing of his pictures took only two hours

Hypernyms ("development" is a kind of...):

processing (preparing or putting through a prescribed procedure)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "development"):

underdevelopment ((photography) inadequate processing of film resulting in inadequate contrast)

Derivation:

develop (make visible by means of chemical solutions)

Sense 9

Meaning:

(music) the section of a composition or movement (especially in sonata form) where the major musical themes are developed and elaborated

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("development" is a kind of...):

section; subdivision (a self-contained part of a larger composition (written or musical))

Domain category:

music (an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner)

 Context examples 

The company structure remains unchanged and all sites continue to operate, but Hungarian engineers are to join the research and development team.

(Hungarian state-owned enterprise acquires Hirtenberger Defence Group, Wikinews)

NICHD researchers and their colleagues analyzed data from the Upstate KIDS Study, originally undertaken to follow the development of children conceived after infertility treatments and born in New York State from 2008 to 2010.

(High amounts of screen time begin as early as infancy, National Institutes of Health)

The clouds that generate storms have a vertical development that can reach 6,000 meters high.

(Australian bushfire smoke drifts to South America, SciDev.Net)

They also found that PHD proteins limit the development of inflammatory T cells and restrain their ability to produce molecules involved in cancer killing.

(Oxygen can impair cancer immunotherapy in mice, NIH)

Past research suggests that daily aspirin therapy, which is often prescribed to prevent cardiovascular disease, may also prevent the development of cancer.

(An Aspirin A Day Keep Liver Cancer Away, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

CLE peptides are involved in cellular development and response to stress, and they are present throughout the plant kingdom, from green algae to flowering plants.

(Plant gene discovery could help reduce fertilizer pollution in waterways, National Science Foundation)

The progeny of two crosses that lacked recessive embryonic phenotypes through 5 or 6 days of development were selected as founders of two distinct lethal free lines that were designated TAB-5 and TAB-14.

(AB/Tubingen Zebrafish, NCI Thesaurus)

This gene may be involved in both lipid metabolism and neural development.

(ABCA2 Gene, NCI Thesaurus)

This gene plays a role in apoptosis and development.

(ADAMTS9 Gene, NCI Thesaurus)

The mean age of development of adenocarcinoma is about 40 years.

(Adenocarcinoma in Adenomatous Polyposis Coli, NCI Thesaurus)