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embryo

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The definition of an embryo is an unborn but developing child or animal, or something in the early stages that shows potential for development.

(noun)

An example of an embryo is when you have a viable female human egg that has been fertilized with a man's sperm.
An example of an embryo is the draft of a series of new laws protecting human rights that will be used in the development of a constitution to govern a country where a human rights violation is taking place.

See embryo in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun pl. embryos

an animal in the earliest stages of its development in the uterus or the egg, specif., in humans, from conception to about the eighth week
1. an early or undeveloped stage of something
2. anything in such a stage
the rudimentary plant contained in a seed, usually made up of hypocotyl, radicle, plumule, and cotyledons

Origin: ME embrio < ML embryo < Gr embryon, embryo, fetus, thing newly born, neut. of embryos, growing in < en-, in + bryein, to swell, be full

adjective

embryonic

embryo, embryonic: embryology

also, before a vowel, embry-

See embryo in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun pl. em·bry·os

a. An organism in its early stages of development, especially before it has reached a distinctively recognizable form.
b. An organism at any time before full development, birth, or hatching.
a. The fertilized egg of a vertebrate animal following cleavage.
b. In humans, the prefetal product of conception from implantation through the eighth week of development.
Botany The minute, rudimentary plant contained within a seed or an archegonium.
A rudimentary or beginning stage: “To its founding fathers, the European [Economic] Community was the embryo of the United States of Europe” (Economist).