development

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act of developing or the state of being developed, as.
• noun The application of techniques or technology to the production of new goods or services.
• noun The business of constructing buildings or otherwise altering land for new uses.
• noun A significant event, occurrence, or change.
• noun A group of dwellings built by the same contractor.
• noun The organized activity of soliciting donations or grants; fundraising.
• noun Elaboration of a theme with rhythmic and harmonic variations.
• noun The central section of a movement in sonata form, in which the theme is elaborated and explored.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The generation of a new living being considered inductively as a fact, without reference to the question whether it is to be regarded as evolution or unfolding, or as epigenesis or new formation; the subject-matter of the science of descriptive embryology or embryogeny.
• noun Specifically, in music, the second section of a movement in sonata form or the central portion of a fugue, in which the thematic material in the subject or subjects is unfolded and variously treated. Also called the working-out or the development section.
• noun In chess, the movements by which a player in the early part of the game places his pieces in position for future action.
• noun A gradual unfolding; a full disclosure or working out of the details of something, as the plot of a novel or a drama, an architectural or a military plan, a financial scheme, etc.; the act of evolving or unraveling.
• noun The internal or subjective process of unfolding or expanding; the coming forth or into existence of additional elements, principles, or substances; gradual advancement through progressive changes; a growing out or up; growth in general: as, the development of the mind or body, or of a form of government; the development of the principles of art or of civilization.
• noun Specifically
• noun In biology, the same as evolution: applied alike to an evolutionary process and its result.
• noun In math.: The expression of any function in the form of a series; also, the process by which any mathematical expression is changed into another of equivalent value or meaning and of more expanded form; also, the series resulting from such a process.
• noun The bending of a surface into a plane, or of all its infinitesimal parts into parts of a plane.
• noun The bending of a non-plane curve into a plane curve.
• noun In photography, the process by which the latent image in a photographically exposed sensitive film is rendered visible through a chemical precipitation on that portion of the sensitized surface which has been acted on by light.
• noun In music: The systematic unfolding, by a varied rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic treatment, of the qualities of a theme, especially in a formal composition like a sonata.
• noun That part of a movement in which such an unfolding of a theme takes place.
• noun In biology, the theory of evolution (which see, under evolution).
• noun Synonyms Unraveling, disentanglement.
• noun Growth, evolution, progress, ripening.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of developing or disclosing that which is unknown; a gradual unfolding process by which anything is developed, as a plan or method, or an image upon a photographic plate; gradual advancement or growth through a series of progressive changes; also, the result of developing, or a developed state.
• noun (Biol.) The series of changes which animal and vegetable organisms undergo in their passage from the embryonic state to maturity, from a lower to a higher state of organization.
• noun The act or process of changing or expanding an expression into another of equivalent value or meaning.
• noun The equivalent expression into which another has been developed.
• noun (Mus.) The elaboration of a theme or subject; the unfolding of a musical idea; the evolution of a whole piece or movement from a leading theme or motive.
• noun A tract of land on which a number of buildings have been constructed; -- especially used for tract on which from two to hundreds of houses have been constructed by a commercial developer{4} for sale to individuals.
• noun (Biol.) the doctrine that animals and plants possess the power of passing by slow and successive stages from a lower to a higher state of organization, and that all the higher forms of life now in existence were thus developed by uniform laws from lower forms, and are not the result of special creative acts. See the Note under Darwinian.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun uncountable The process of developing; growth, directed change
• noun uncountable, biology The process by which a mature multicellular organism or part of an organism is produced by the addition of new cells.
• noun countable Something which has developed
• noun real estate, countable A project consisting of one or more commercial or residential buildings, real estate development
• noun real estate, uncountable The building of a real estate development
• noun uncountable The application of new ideas to practical problems (cf. research)
• noun chess, uncountable The active placement of the pieces, or the process of achieving it
• noun music The second section of a piece of music in sonata form.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a state in which things are improving; the result of developing (as in the early part of a game of chess)
• noun a recent event that has some relevance for the present situation
• noun a process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage)
• noun a district that has been developed to serve some purpose
• noun the act of making some area of land or water more profitable or productive or useful
• noun processing a photosensitive material in order to make an image visible
• noun (music) the section of a composition or movement (especially in sonata form) where the major musical themes are developed and elaborated
• noun act of improving by expanding or enlarging or refining
• noun (biology) the process of an individual organism growing organically; a purely biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level