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.
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A new development of imagination, taste, and poetry.
--Channing.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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