FOETUS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does foetus mean? 

• FOETUS (noun)
  The noun FOETUS has 1 sense:

1. an unborn or unhatched vertebrate in the later stages of development showing the main recognizable features of the mature animal

  Familiarity information: FOETUS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOETUS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An unborn or unhatched vertebrate in the later stages of development showing the main recognizable features of the mature animal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

fetus; foetus

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

craniate; vertebrate (animals having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton with a segmented spinal column and a large brain enclosed in a skull or cranium)

Meronyms (parts of "foetus"):

ductus arteriosus (a blood vessel in a fetus that bypasses pulmonary circulation by connecting the pulmonary artery directly to the ascending aorta; normally closes at birth)

umbilical; umbilical cord (membranous duct connecting the fetus with the placenta)

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

monster; teras ((medicine) a grossly malformed and usually nonviable fetus)

abortus (a human fetus whose weight is less than 0.5 kilogram when removed or expelled from the mother's body)

baby (an unborn child; a human fetus)

Derivation:

foetal (of or relating to a fetus)

 Context examples 

All four oestrogens were significantly elevated, on average, in the 98 foetuses who later developed autism, compared to the 177 foetuses who did not.

(High levels of oestrogen in the womb linked to autism, University of Cambridge)

The other two types of stem cell in the blastocyst are the extra-embryonic trophoblast stem cells (TSCs), which will form the placenta, and primitive endoderm stem cells (PESCs) that will form the yolk sac, ensuring that the foetus’s organs develop properly and providing essential nutrients.

(Scientists generate key life event in artificial mouse ‘embryo’ created from stem cells, University of Cambridge)

These androgens are produced in higher quantities in male than in female foetuses on average, so might also explain why autism occurs more often in boys.

(High levels of oestrogen in the womb linked to autism, University of Cambridge)

In 2015, a team of scientists at the University of Cambridge and the State Serum Institute in Denmark measured the levels of four prenatal steroid hormones, including two known as androgens, in the amniotic fluid in the womb and discovered that they were higher in male foetuses who later developed autism.

(High levels of oestrogen in the womb linked to autism, University of Cambridge)