development
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
development
n 1: act of improving by expanding or enlarging or refining; "he
congratulated them on their development of a plan to meet
the emergency"; "they funded research and development"
2: a process in which something passes by degrees to a different
stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage); "the
development of his ideas took many years"; "the evolution of
Greek civilization"; "the slow development of her skill as a
writer" [syn: {development}, {evolution}] [ant:
{degeneration}, {devolution}]
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; "he proposed an indicator of osseous
development in children" [syn: {growth}, {growing},
{maturation}, {development}, {ontogeny}, {ontogenesis}] [ant:
{nondevelopment}]
4: a recent event that has some relevance for the present
situation; "recent developments in Iraq"; "what a revolting
development!"
5: the act of making some area of land or water more profitable
or productive or useful; "the development of Alaskan
resources"; "the exploitation of copper deposits" [syn:
{exploitation}, {development}]
6: a district that has been developed to serve some purpose;
"such land is practical for small park developments"
7: a state in which things are improving; the result of
developing (as in the early part of a game of chess); "after
he saw the latest development he changed his mind and became
a supporter"; "in chess your should take care of your
development before moving your queen"
8: processing a photosensitive material in order to make an
image visible; "the development and printing of his pictures
took only two hours" [syn: {development}, {developing}]
9: (music) the section of a composition or movement (especially
in sonata form) where the major musical themes are developed
and elaborated
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Development \De*vel"op*ment\, n. [Cf. F. d['e]veloppement.]
[Written also {developement}.]
1. The act of developing or disclosing that which is unknown;
a gradual unfolding process by which anything is
developed, as a plan or method, or an image upon a
photographic plate; gradual advancement or growth through
a series of progressive changes; also, the result of
developing, or a developed state.
[1913 Webster]
A new development of imagination, taste, and poetry.
--Channing.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Biol.) The series of changes which animal and vegetable
organisms undergo in their passage from the embryonic
state to maturity, from a lower to a higher state of
organization.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Math.)
(a) The act or process of changing or expanding an
expression into another of equivalent value or
meaning.
(b) The equivalent expression into which another has been
developed.
[1913 Webster]
4. (Mus.) The elaboration of a theme or subject; the
unfolding of a musical idea; the evolution of a whole
piece or movement from a leading theme or motive.
[1913 Webster]
5. A tract of land on which a number of buildings have been
constructed; -- especially used for tract on which from
two to hundreds of houses have been constructed by a
commercial developer[4] for sale to individuals.
[PJC]
{Development theory} (Biol.), the doctrine that animals and
plants possess the power of passing by slow and successive
stages from a lower to a higher state of organization, and
that all the higher forms of life now in existence were
thus developed by uniform laws from lower forms, and are
not the result of special creative acts. See the Note
under {Darwinian}.
Syn: Unfolding; disclosure; unraveling; evolution;
elaboration; growth.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
275 Moby Thesaurus words for "development":
abiogenesis, access, accession, accomplishment, accretion, accrual,
accruement, accumulation, action, addition, advance, advancement,
aggrandizement, aging, amplification, anacrusis, anagnorisis,
angle, appreciation, apprenticeship, archigenesis, architectonics,
architecture, argument, ascent, atmosphere, augmentation,
background, ballooning, basic training, bass passage,
beautification, biogenesis, birth, blastogenesis, bloating,
blossoming, boom, boost, bourdon, breaking, breeding, bridge,
broadening, budding, buildup, burden, burgeoning, by-product,
cadence, catastrophe, characterization, chorus, circumstance, coda,
color, complication, condition, conditioning, consequence,
consequent, continuity, contrivance, corollary, crescendo,
cultivation, denouement, derivation, derivative, design,
developmental change, device, digenesis, dilation, discipline,
distillate, division, drill, drilling, edema, effect, elaboration,
elevation, embellishment, enlargement, epigenesis, episode,
eumerogenesis, event, eventuality, eventuation, evolution,
evolutionary change, evolvement, evolving, excrescence, exercise,
expansion, expatiation, explication, exposition, extension, fable,
falling action, fetching-up, figure, flood, flowering, folderol,
fostering, fruit, furtherance, gain, gemmation, generation,
genesis, germination, gimmick, gradual change, greatening,
grooming, growth, gush, happening, harmonic close, harvest,
heterogenesis, hike, histogenesis, homogenesis, housebreaking,
improvement, in-service training, incident, increase, increment,
inflation, interlude, intermezzo, introductory phrase, isogenesis,
issue, jump, leap, legacy, line, local color, logical outcome,
manual training, maturation, maturescence, maturing, maturity,
measure, mellowing, merogenesis, metagenesis, military training,
monogenesis, mood, motif, mounting, movement, multiplication,
musical phrase, musical sentence, mythos, natural development,
natural growth, nonviolent change, nurture, nurturing, occurrence,
offshoot, offspring, on-the-job training, ongoing, ornament,
orthogenesis, outcome, outgrowth, overgrowth, pangenesis, part,
parthenogenesis, passage, perfection, period, peripeteia,
phenomenon, phrase, plan, plot, practice, precipitate, preparation,
procreation, product, productiveness, progress, progression,
proliferation, pullulation, raise, raising, readying, rearing,
recognition, refinement, refrain, rehearsal, reproduction,
resolution, response, result, resultant, ripening, rise,
rising action, ritornello, scheme, seasoning, secondary plot,
section, senescence, sequel, sequela, sequence, sequent, situation,
slant, sloyd, snowballing, spontaneous generation, spread,
sprouting, stanza, statement, story, strain, structure, subject,
subplot, surge, swelling, switch, tailpiece, tempering,
thematic development, theme, tone, topic, training, tumescence,
tutti, tutti passage, twist, unfolding, up, upbringing, upgrowth,
upping, upshot, upsurge, upswing, uptrend, upturn, variation,
vegetation, verse, vocational education, vocational training,
waxing, widening, working-out
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