embryo
/'embriou/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Noun:
- An early stage of development in a multicellular organism: An embryo is an animal organism in its initial phases of growth and differentiation. In higher-order animals, this stage precedes the fetal stage. In simpler organisms, this stage concludes when larval life begins.
- A rudimentary plant within a seed: In botany, an embryo refers to the minute, undeveloped plant contained inside a seed or an archegonium.
Examples of Usage
- Noun (Zoology):
- The human embryo develops rapidly during the first trimester.
- Scientists studied the chicken embryo to understand limb development.
- Noun (Botany):
- The seed's embryo will germinate when conditions are right.
- A viable embryo is essential for the seed to grow into a new plant.
Advanced Usage
- "In embryo": In an undeveloped or rudimentary state; existing in potential but not yet realized.
- The plan for the new community center is still in embryo; we need more funding and detailed designs.
- His great novel existed only in embryo as a few scattered notes.
Variants and Related Words
- Embryonic (adjective): Relating to or characteristic of an embryo; in a very early stage of development.
- The project is still in its embryonic stages.
- Embryology (noun): The branch of biology that studies the formation and development of embryos.
Synonyms
- Germ: A portion of an organism capable of developing into a new one; often used metaphorically like "the germ of an idea."
- Rudiment: The first slight beginning or early stage of something.
- Nucleus: A central or essential part around which other parts are gathered; a core of future development.
Related Phrases
- Frozen embryo: An embryo preserved through cryopreservation.
- The couple decided to use a frozen embryo for their second pregnancy.
Related Idioms
- "In embryo": As mentioned in 'Advanced Usage', this idiom is used to describe something that is not yet fully developed.
- The concept for the revolutionary software was already present in embryo twenty years ago.
Noun
- an animal organism in the early stages of growth and differentiation that in higher forms merge into fetal stages but in lower forms terminate in commencement of larval life
- (botany) a minute rudimentary plant contained within a seed or an archegonium