embryo

• (after the Medieval Latin embryo) embrio [Middle English to the 18th century], [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.
   • 2015 August 18, Clelia De-la-Peña et al., “The role of chromatin modifications in somatic embryogenesis in plants”, in Frontiers in Plant Science‎^[1], volume 6, →DOI:

     SE onset depends on a complex network of interactions among plant growth regulators, mainly auxins and cytokinins, during the proembryogenic early stages, and ethylene and gibberellic and abscisic acids later in the development of somatic embryos.

   • 2015 December 4, “Divergent RNA Localisation Patterns of Maternal Genes Regulating Embryonic Patterning in the Butterfly Pararge aegeria”, in PLOS ONE‎^[2], →DOI:

     In situ hybridisations were performed on devitellinised embryos still wrapped around the yolk and on embryos with the yolk dissected away.

   • 2019 January 23, Susan Scutti, “Climate change will affect gender ratio among newborns, scientists say”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     Though scientists do not know how stress affects gestation, Fukuda theorizes that the vulnerability of Y-bearing sperm cells, male embryos and/or male fetuses to stress is why “subtle significant changes in sex ratios” occur.

   • 2023 June 14, Brenda Goodman, “Scientists report creation of first human synthetic model embryos”, in CNN‎^[4]:

     They include cells that would typically go on to develop a yolk sac, a placenta and the embryo itself.

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, volume (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. […], volume (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 (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “embryo”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “embryo”, in Akademický slovník cizích slov at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz [Academic dictionary of foreign words] (in Czech), 1995

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

• In botany, embryo refers to the very first stage of a plant's life while still in the seed. This stage is followed by the kiemplant and later zaailing stages.

• → Indonesian: embrio

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈembryo/, [ˈe̞m.bryo̞]
• Rhymes: -embryo
• Syllabification^(key): emb‧ry‧o
• Hyphenation^(key): emb‧ryo

embryo (rare)

1. embryo

• alkio

• “embryo”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[5] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

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. an embryo (unborn baby less developed than a fetus)
2. an embryo (organism in the earlier stages of development before it emerges from the egg, or before metamorphosis)
3. (figuratively) an embryo (beginning, first stage)

• embryonal (“embryonic”)

• foster (“fetus”)

• embryo in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• embryo in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• embryo in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)