embryo

• (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)

Borrowed from Medieval Latin embryō, from Ancient Greek ἔμβρυον (émbruon, “fetus”), from ἐν (en, “in-”) + βρύω (brúō, “I grow, swell”). Possibly related to Hebrew עֻבָּר‎ (“fetus, embryo”) ('ʊbar).

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

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 [...]

• embryology
• embryonic
• proembryo

• fetus, foetus
• zygote

• embryo on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• merboy

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

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: em‧bryo

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

1. embryo

• embryologie

embryo

1. (rare) embryo

• alkio

embryo (plural embryos)

1. embryo

• embryonal

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

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

(biology, botany) an embryo

• foster

• “embryo” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

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

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

(biology, botany) an embryo

• foster

• “embryo” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

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.