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/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (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 of the child within the mother's body, through the end of the seventh week of pregnancy
5. (botany) A rudimentary plant contained in the seed.
6. (figurative) The beginning; the first stage of anything.
   • 1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Introduction to the Following Treatise”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page lxxviii:

     […] while the Company little ſuſpected what a noble Work I had then in Embryo […]

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     it dives into the heart of the observed, and there espies evil, as it were, in the first embryo […]

   • 1860 January – 1861 April, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published April 1861, →OCLC:

     Lord Lufton, with his barony and twenty thousand a year, might be accepted as just good enough; but failing him there was an embryo marquis, whose fortune would be more than ten times as great, all ready to accept his child!

• fetus, foetus
• zygote

• embryo on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Morbey, merboy

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛmbrɪjo]

embryo n

1. embryo

   Synonym: zárodek

• embryo in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• embryo in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
• embryo in Akademický slovník cizích slov, 1995, at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛm.bri.oː/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: em‧bryo

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

1. embryo

• embryogenese
• embryologie
• embryologisch
• embryoloog
• embryonaal
• embryoselectie
• embryotransplantatie

• → Indonesian: embrio

Internationalism (see English embryo), ultimately from Medieval Latin embryō.

• IPA^(key): /ˈembryo/, [ˈe̞mbryo̞]
• Rhymes: -embryo
• Syllabification^(key): emb‧ry‧o

embryo (rare)

1. embryo

• alkio

• “embryo”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

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)

1. (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)

1. (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.