Development

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A new development of imagination, taste, and poetry.
                                                    --Channing.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  development
       n 1: act of improving by expanding or enlarging or refining; "he
            congratulated them on their development of a plan to
            meet the emergency"; "they funded research and
            development"
       2: a process in which something passes by degrees to a
          different stage (especially a more advanced or mature
          stage); "the development of his ideas took many years";
          "the evolution of Greek civilization"; "the slow
          development of her skill as a writer" [syn: {evolution}]
          [ant: {degeneration}]
       3: a recent event that has some relevance for the present
          situation; "recent developments in Iraq"; "what a
          revolting development!"
       4: the act of making some area of land or water more profitable
          or productive or useful; "the development of Alaskan
          resources"; "the exploitation of copper deposits" [syn: {exploitation}]
       5: a district that has been developed to serve some purpose;
          "such land is practical for small park developments"
       6: a state in which things are improving; the result of
          developing (as in the early part of a game of chess);
          "after he saw the latest development he changed his mind
          and became a supporter"; "in chess your should take care
          of your development before moving your queen"
       7: (biology) the process of an individual organism growing
          organically; a purely biological unfolding of events
          involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple
          to a more complex level; "he proposed an indicator of
          osseous development in children" [syn: {growth}, {growing},
           {maturation}, {ontogeny}, {ontogenesis}] [ant: {nondevelopment}]
       8: processing a photosensitive material in order to make an
          image visible; "the development and printing of his
          pictures took only two hours" [syn: {developing}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  275 Moby Thesaurus words for "development":
     abiogenesis, access, accession, accomplishment, accretion, accrual,
     accruement, accumulation, action, addition, advance, advancement,
     aggrandizement, aging, amplification, anacrusis, anagnorisis,
     angle, appreciation, apprenticeship, archigenesis, architectonics,
     architecture, argument, ascent, atmosphere, augmentation,
     background, ballooning, basic training, bass passage,
     beautification, biogenesis, birth, blastogenesis, bloating,
     blossoming, boom, boost, bourdon, breaking, breeding, bridge,
     broadening, budding, buildup, burden, burgeoning, by-product,
     cadence, catastrophe, characterization, chorus, circumstance, coda,
     color, complication, condition, conditioning, consequence,
     consequent, continuity, contrivance, corollary, crescendo,
     cultivation, denouement, derivation, derivative, design,
     developmental change, device, digenesis, dilation, discipline,
     distillate, division, drill, drilling, edema, effect, elaboration,
     elevation, embellishment, enlargement, epigenesis, episode,
     eumerogenesis, event, eventuality, eventuation, evolution,
     evolutionary change, evolvement, evolving, excrescence, exercise,
     expansion, expatiation, explication, exposition, extension, fable,
     falling action, fetching-up, figure, flood, flowering, folderol,
     fostering, fruit, furtherance, gain, gemmation, generation,
     genesis, germination, gimmick, gradual change, greatening,
     grooming, growth, gush, happening, harmonic close, harvest,
     heterogenesis, hike, histogenesis, homogenesis, housebreaking,
     improvement, in-service training, incident, increase, increment,
     inflation, interlude, intermezzo, introductory phrase, isogenesis,
     issue, jump, leap, legacy, line, local color, logical outcome,
     manual training, maturation, maturescence, maturing, maturity,
     measure, mellowing, merogenesis, metagenesis, military training,
     monogenesis, mood, motif, mounting, movement, multiplication,
     musical phrase, musical sentence, mythos, natural development,
     natural growth, nonviolent change, nurture, nurturing, occurrence,
     offshoot, offspring, on-the-job training, ongoing, ornament,
     orthogenesis, outcome, outgrowth, overgrowth, pangenesis, part,
     parthenogenesis, passage, perfection, period, peripeteia,
     phenomenon, phrase, plan, plot, practice, precipitate, preparation,
     procreation, product, productiveness, progress, progression,
     proliferation, pullulation, raise, raising, readying, rearing,
     recognition, refinement, refrain, rehearsal, reproduction,
     resolution, response, result, resultant, ripening, rise,
     rising action, ritornello, scheme, seasoning, secondary plot,
     section, senescence, sequel, sequela, sequence, sequent, situation,
     slant, sloyd, snowballing, spontaneous generation, spread,
     sprouting, stanza, statement, story, strain, structure, subject,
     subplot, surge, swelling, switch, tailpiece, tempering,
     thematic development, theme, tone, topic, training, tumescence,
     tutti, tutti passage, twist, unfolding, up, upbringing, upgrowth,
     upping, upshot, upsurge, upswing, uptrend, upturn, variation,
     vegetation, verse, vocational education, vocational training,
     waxing, widening, working-out
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  development
       
          The process of analysis, design, coding and testing software.