embryo

Alternative forms

• (after the Medieval Latin embryo) embrio [Middle English to the 18th century], embryo [17th century to the present] (singular forms); embryones [17th century to the present], embrio’s [17th–18th centuries], embrioes [17th century], embryos [19th century to the present] (plural forms)
• (after the stem (embryōn-) of the Medieval Latin embryo) embrioun [Middle English], embrion [Middle English to the 18th century], embryon [17th–19th centuries] (singular forms); embrions [17th C.], embryons [17th–19th centuries] (plural forms)
• (after the Ancient Greek ἔμβρυον (émbruon)) embryon [17th century to the present] (singular form); embryons [17th century to the present], embrya [18th century to the present] (plural forms)

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin embryō, from Ancient Greek ἔμβρυον (émbruon, “fetus”), from ἐν (en, “in-”) + βρύω (brúō, “I grow, swell”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛmbɹi.əʊ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛmbɹi.oʊ/
• Hyphenation: em‧bryo

Noun

embryo (plural embryos or embryones)

1. In the reproductive cycle, the stage after the fertilization of the egg that precedes the development into a fetus.
2. An organism in the earlier stages of development before it emerges from the egg, or before metamorphosis.
3. In viviparous animals, the young animal's earliest stages in the mother's body
4. In humans, usually the cell growth up to the end of the seventh week in the mother's body
5. (botany) A rudimentary plant contained in the seed.
6. The beginning; the first stage of anything.
   • Jonathan Swift

     The company little suspected what a noble work I had then in embryo.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, page 419:

     it dives into the heart of the observed, and there espies evil, as it were, in the first embryo [...]

Further reading

• embryo on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• merboy

Etymology

From New Latin embryo, from Ancient Greek ἔμβρυον (émbruon, “fetus”).

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: em‧bryo

Noun

embryo n (plural embryo's, diminutive embryootje n)

1. embryo

Noun

embryo

1. (rare) embryo

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin embryo, from Ancient Greek ἔμβρυον (émbruon, “fetus”).

Noun

embryo n (definite singular embryoet, indefinite plural embryo or embryoer, definite plural embryoa or embryoene)

(biology, botany) an embryo

References

• “embryo” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin embryo, from Ancient Greek ἔμβρυον (émbruon, “fetus”).

Noun

embryo n (definite singular embryoet, indefinite plural embryo, definite plural embryoa)

(biology, botany) an embryo

References

• “embryo” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Noun

embryo n

1. embryo; an unborn baby that is less developed than a fetus.
2. embryo; an organism in the earlier stages of development before it emerges from the egg, or before metamorphosis.