Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or being an embryo.
  • adjective Rudimentary; incipient.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the character or being in the condition of an embryo; pertaining or relating to an embryo or embryos; hence, rudimentary; incipient; inchoate: as, an embryonic animal, germ, or cell; embryonic development or researches; an embryonic scheme; civilization is in an embryonic state.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Biol.) Of or pertaining to an embryo; embryonal; rudimentary.
  • adjective (Bot.) the vesicle within which the embryo is developed in the ovule; -- sometimes called also amnios sac, and embryonal sac.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective embryology Of or relating to an embryo.
  • adjective figuratively Something, especially a project, that is very new and is still evolving; something that has yet to reach its full potential.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of an organism prior to birth or hatching
  • adjective in an early stage of development

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Medieval Latin embryō, embryōn-, embryo; see embryo.]

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