ˈembrēˌō noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Medieval Latin embryon-, embryo, modification of Greek embryon, from (assumed) Greek embryein to swell inside, from Greek em- en- (II) + bryein to swell — more at sauerkraut
1.
a. archaic : a human or other animal offspring at any stage of development prior to birth or hatching as a young individual fundamentally similar to the adult
b. : an animal organism in the early stages of growth and differentiation that are characterized by cleavage, the laying down of fundamental tissues, and the formation of primitive organs and organ systems and that in higher forms (as mammals) merge insensibly into fetal stages but in lower forms are terminated by commencement of larval life, often with a form markedly different from that of the adult — compare fetus , zygote
c. : the developing human individual from the time of implantation to the end of the eighth week after conception — compare fetus , ovum
2. : the young sporophyte of a seed plant, resulting from union of the egg and one of the two sperm nuclei, sometimes consisting of only a few cells (as in orchids) but usually comprising a rudimentary plant with plumule, radicle, and cotyledons, and typically embedded in endosperm that provides nutriment for the developing plant upon germination — called also germ
3. : something as yet undeveloped and lacking final form and differentiation : a conception precedent to realization ; often : the state characteristic of such a thing : a state of incipience — used especially in the phrase in embryo