the act or process of developing; growth; progress: child development; economic development.
a significant consequence or event: recent developments in the field of science.
a developed or advanced state or form: Drama reached its highest development in the plays of Shakespeare.
Music. the part of a movement or composition in which a theme or themes are developed, or unfolded and elaborated, by various technical means, so as to reveal their inherent possibilities.
a large group of private houses or of apartment houses, often of similar design, constructed as a unified community, especially by a real-estate developer or government organization.
Chess. the act or process of developing chess pieces.
Mining. the work of digging openings, as tunnels, raises, and winzes, to give access to new workings, and of erecting necessary structures.
1756, "an unfolding;" see develop + -ment. Of property, with the sense "bringing out the latent possibilities," from 1885 (Pickering's glossary of Americanisms, 1816, has betterments "The improvements made on new lands, by cultivation, and the erection of buildings, &c."). Meaning "state of economic advancement" is from 1902. Meaning "advancement through progressive stages" is 1836.
