gestation
Americannoun
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gestations
plural
noun
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the development of the embryo of a viviparous mammal, between conception and birth: about 266 days in humans, 624 days in elephants, and 63 days in cats
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( as modifier )
gestation period
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the development of an idea or plan in the mind
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the period of such a development
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gestation
1525–35; < Latin gestātiōn- (stem of gestātiō ), equivalent to gestāt ( us ) ( see gestate) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
Gestation is the period of time when something is conceived and developed. The gestation period for human babies lasts nine months. Gestation comes from the Latin gestare, which means to bear, or give birth to. We can talk about the gestation of fetus before it's born, but we also use gestation to talk about ideas. If you've been vaguely thinking about starting a revolution for the last year, then that idea has been in gestation.
Vocabulary lists containing gestation
Letters to a Young Poet
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Roe v. Wade (1973)
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Educated
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The biggest ideas have the longest timeframe and, perhaps, the greatest need for a lengthy debate in their gestation.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
As females grow larger to support reproduction and gestation, that potential benefit may become less important.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
This is due to funds under management rolling out of gestation and becoming fee earning, as well as organic net inflows and operational efficiencies, BofA says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
“So it has been a long gestation period,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
As a fat man, I walked with the foot soldiers so as not to jounce the gestation.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
“Potentially, those gestations that would have ended in fetal death in 2021 were born alive in 2022 and then died shortly after,” Ms. Gemmill said in an interview.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 8, 2023
For one, it works best with species that have big litters and short gestations, Quimon points out.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 2, 2021
But we don’t know how those powers, or the rules of the “town” where Wanda and Vision are apparently trapped, affected the gestations of their children.
From Slate ● Jan. 22, 2021
Clothes and show and conversation were like one big work in progress; the gestations of ideas not yet fully realized, but introduced to the world nonetheless.
From New York Times ● Mar. 3, 2020
Increased skill in diagnosis would raise the number of children brought to baptism, but it would more than proportionately raise the whole number of ectopic gestations discovered.
From Essays In Pastoral Medicine by Austin ?Malley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
