De*vel"op*ment (?), n. [Cf. F.
développement.] [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.
A new development of imagination, taste, and
poetry.
Channing.
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.
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.
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.
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.
