Embryo

[em-bree-oh] /ˈɛm briˌoʊ/

noun, plural embryos.
1.
the young of a viviparous animal, especially of a mammal, in the early stages of development within the womb, in humans up to the end of the second month.
Compare .
2.
Botany. the rudimentary plant usually contained in the seed.
3.
any multicellular animal in a developmental stage preceding birth or hatching.
4.
the beginning or rudimentary stage of anything:
He charged that the party policy was socialism in embryo.
adjective
5.
.
1.
a combining form representing embryo, in compound words:
embryology.
/ˈɛmbrɪˌəʊ/
noun (pl) -bryos
1.
an animal in the early stages of development following cleavage of the zygote and ending at birth or hatching
2.
the human product of conception up to approximately the end of the second month of pregnancy Compare fetus
3.
a plant in the early stages of development: in higher plants, the plumule, cotyledons, and radicle within the seed
4.
an undeveloped or rudimentary state (esp in the phrase in embryo)
5.
something in an early stage of development: an embryo of an idea
n.

mid-14c., from Medieval Latin embryo, from Greek embryon “a young one,” in Homer, “young animal,” later, “fruit of the womb,” literally “that which grows,” from en “in” (see en- (2)) + bryein “to swell, be full.”

embryo em·bry·o (ěm’brē-ō’)
n. pl. em·bry·os

embryo- or embry-
pref.
Embryo: embryogenesis.
embryo
(ěm’brē-ō’)

embryonic adjective (ěm’brē-ŏn’ĭk)
embryo [(em-bree-oh)]

A developing plant or animal. A plant embryo is an undeveloped plant inside a seed. An animal embryo is the animal as it develops from the single cell of the zygote until birth. Among humans and most other mammals, the embryo is carried in the mother’s womb.

Note: The term is occasionally used to denote a new or developing idea or project: “The idea for the complete theory was already present in his work, in embryo form, in 1950.”