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• embryo
  embryo

  noun

  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.
• embryo-
  embryo-

  a combining form representing embryo in compound words.

embryo

¹ American  

[em-bree-oh] / ˈɛm briˌoʊ /

noun

• embryos
  plural

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.

2. 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.

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adjective

1. embryonic.

embryo- ² American  

1. a combining form representing embryo in compound words.

   embryology.

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embryo British  

/ ˈɛmbrɪˌəʊ /

noun

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

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embryo Scientific  

/ ĕm′brē-ō′ /

1. An animal in its earliest stage of development, before all the major body structures are represented. In humans, the embryonic stage lasts through the first eight weeks of pregnancy. In humans, other placental mammals, and other viviparous animals, young born as embryos cannot thrive. In marsupials, the young are born during the embryonic stage and complete their development outside the uterus, attached to a teat within the mother's pouch.

2. The developing young of an egg-laying animal before hatching.

3. The sporophyte of a plant in its earliest stages of development, such as the miniature, partially developed plant contained within a seed before germination.

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embryo Cultural  

1. 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.

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Usage

What does embryo- mean? Embryo- is a combining form used like a prefix representing the word embryo. It is often used in scientific terms, especially in anatomy and biology. Embryo- ultimately comes from the Greek émbryos, meaning “ingrowing.”What are variants of embryo-?When combined with words or word elements that begin with a vowel, embryo- becomes embry-, as in embryectomy.

Discover More

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.”

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• embryoid
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• embryos
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of embryo

First recorded in 1580–90; from Medieval Latin embryo, embryon-, from Greek émbryon, noun use of neuter of émbryos “ingrowing,” equivalent to em- “in” + bry- (stem of brýein “to swell”) + -os adjective suffix; em- ²

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Explanation

An embryo is an animal in the phase after fertilization but before birth or hatching. Embryos still live in the womb or egg. Do you remember when you were an embryo? Probably not, because you were just a tiny clump of cells in your mother's womb — you weren't born yet. All animals were embryos at one point: it's a very early stage of life. Another meaning is not as literal: the beginning of an idea could be called an embryo, as in, "My plan for ice-skating robots is still in the embryo stage." That means the idea isn't very developed.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

embryo embryos

That is, it’s low if you go through the full process of having your eggs retrieved at 44, fertilized, and then an embryo implanted.

From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026

As an embryo grows, its cells divide repeatedly and begin taking on specialized functions.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026

It not only covered more services than other states, including three egg retrievals and unlimited embryo transfers, it covered them for more people.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026

The embryo grows until it causes the organ to rupture, triggering catastrophic bleeding.

From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026

Aristotle had recast heredity as the flow of information—a river of code moving from egg to the embryo.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Although the work was conducted in mouse embryos and does not yet represent a direct medical treatment, it demonstrates a powerful way to study the biological decisions that shape a developing organism.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026

He also contributed to a 2024 study that found that cotton and polyester microfibers disrupted the development of sea urchin embryos.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

The team examined mouse neurons grown in the laboratory, neurons from adult mice and neurons from mouse embryos.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026

However, embryos are often not visible on an ultrasound early in pregnancy.

From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026

In it, an infertility doctor secretly harvests extra embryos from one of his patients and uses them to create a colony of clones of the woman’s son, who died young in an accident.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

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