noun
- 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.
noun
- the act or process of growing, progressing, or developing
- the product or result of developing
- a fact, event, or happening, esp one that changes a situation
- an area or tract of land that has been developed
- Also called: development section the section of a movement, usually in sonata form, in which the basic musical themes are developed
- chess
- the process of developing pieces
- the manner in which they are developed
- the position of the pieces in the early part of a game with reference to their attacking potential or defensive efficiency
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.
n.
- The act of developing.
- The state of being developed.
- A significant event, occurrence, or change.
- The natural progression from a previous, simpler, or embryonic stage to a later, more complex, or adult stage.