Development definition

Development as a noun

1. act of improving by expanding or enlarging or refining

   "he congratulated them on their development of a plan to meet the emergency"

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"

   Same sense: evolution

3. (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"

   Same sense: growth, growing, maturation, ontogeny, ontogenesis

4. a recent event that has some relevance for the present situation

   "recent developments in Iraq"

5. the act of making some area of land or water more profitable or productive or useful

   "the development of Alaskan resources"

   Same sense: exploitation

6. a district that has been developed to serve some purpose

   "such land is practical for small park developments"

7. 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"

8. processing a photosensitive material in order to make an image visible

   "the development and printing of his pictures took only two hours"

   Same sense: developing

9. (music) the section of a composition or movement (especially in sonata form) where the major musical themes are developed and elaborated

Synonyms and antonyms

• evolution
• growth
• growing
• maturation
• ontogeny
• ontogenesis
• exploitation
• developing

Opposite: nondevelopment.

All synonyms of development, sense by sense

How to say development

Development has 4 syllables and rhymes with redevelopment. Syllable counts and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary.

Words that rhyme with development

• redevelopment

DEVELOPMENT in word games

Scrabble

19

Words With Friends

24

Anagrams

0

Is DEVELOPMENT a valid Scrabble word? Yes, it is in the ENABLE list most word games use. Check DEVELOPMENT in the word checker, or unscramble DEVELOPMENT to see the shorter words in its letters.