Definitions

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

  • noun The period of development in the uterus from conception until birth; pregnancy.
  • noun The conception and development of a plan or an idea in the mind.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bearing or carrying; exercise by being carried.
  • noun The act or condition of carrying young in the womb from conception to delivery; pregnancy.

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

  • noun obsolete The act of wearing (clothes or ornaments).
  • noun The act of carrying young in the womb from conception to delivery; pregnancy.
  • noun Exercise in which one is borne or carried, as on horseback, or in a carriage, without the exertion of his own powers; passive exercise.

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

  • noun The period of time during which an infant animal or human physically develops inside the mother's body until it is born.
  • noun The process of development of a plan or idea.

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

  • noun the period during which an embryo develops (about 266 days in humans)
  • noun the state of being pregnant; the period from conception to birth when a woman carries a developing fetus in her uterus
  • noun the conception and development of an idea or plan

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin gestātiō, gestātiōn-, from Latin, a carrying, from gestātus, past participle of gestāre, freqentative of gerere, to carry.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin gestatio.

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Examples

  • This blog posting does not only link both to Frank's article in the Philadelphia Inquirer and to the comments facility the paper has set up, but also lists/links to all the previous Books, Inq. postings leading up to the article, so the gestation is archived in one place for any interested reader to track.

    Writing Maxine 2009

  • MCCREADY: Well, during the first one the baby was still in I guess what they call gestation, so the doctor described it as it being an all or nothing effect that if the suicide attempt did have any effect on the child I would have lost the baby but I didn't.

    CNN Transcript Nov 11, 2005 2005

  • An 18-year-old African-American couple was referred for their first pregnancy at 19 weeks gestational age for a monochorionic, diamniotic twin gestation complicated by severe Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome.

    Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) 2010

  • Lesions with associated hydrops that are diagnosed late in gestation may benefit from resection using an Ex Utero Intrapartum Therapy (EXIT) approach.

    Bronchopulmonary sequestration and Congenital Cystic Adenomatoid 2010

  • She was a 24-year-old mother with two prior children who was referred at 17 1/2 weeks gestation because of a monochorionic, diamniotic twin gestation complicated by TRAP sequence.

    Twin Reversed Arterial Perfusion Sequence and Bipolar Cord 2010

  • This edition of Frankenstein, in gestation for over fifteen years, provides the texts of both the

    About This Edition 2010

  • This edition has been in gestation for some fifteen years, which in terms of electronic editions encompasses what in book production might be likened to several centuries.

    Introduction 2010

  • It's not like boar gestation is more rapid than the time it takes to load and aim a gun.

    but will the sea lions swim with you? 2008

  • The horrendous thought of a baby being aborted (and killed) for being "inconvenient" at a point in gestation when actually available medical intervention could save that baby for parents who really want it is something our society should definitely take a closer, more ethical look at.

    14 Important Science Questions 2008

  • The horrendous thought of a baby being aborted (and killed) for being "inconvenient" at a point in gestation when actually available medical intervention could save that baby for parents who really want it is something our society should definitely take a closer, more ethical look at.

    14 Important Science Questions 2008

Comments

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  • The frindley has completed a Wordie gestation. That is, nine months ago she added her first word to her first list. It was mediæval, with the ligature. Kind of says it all.

    November 8, 2008

  • Well, mine was Lagerstätte...

    November 8, 2008

  • pandemic.

    November 8, 2008

  • Bilbies have a gestation of about 12–14 days, one of the shortest among mammals.

    Little-known fact: The gestational period would take a little over a week, except for the ears. The bilby's ears slow down gestation considerably.

    September 11, 2021

  • Fact check: we are indeed awesome.

    September 12, 2021