Ontogeny

2 definitions found

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

  Ontogenesis \On`to*gen"e*sis\, Ontogeny \On*tog"e*ny\, n. [See
     {Ontology}, and {Genesis}.] (Biol.)
     The history of the individual development of an organism; the
     sequence of events involved in the development of an
     organism; the history of the evolution of the germ; the
     development of an individual organism, -- in distinction from


     {phylogeny}, or evolution of the tribe. Called also
     {henogenesis}, {henogeny}.
  
     Syn: growth, growing, maturation, development.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ontogeny
       n : (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}, {development}, {ontogenesis}] [ant: {nondevelopment}]