\De*vel"op*ment\, n. [Cf. F. d['e]veloppement.]
[Written also {developement}.]
1. 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.
         A new development of imagination, taste, and poetry.
                                               --Channing.
2. (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.
3. (Math.)
   (a) The act or process of changing or expanding an
       expression into another of equivalent value or
       meaning.
   (b) The equivalent expression into which another has been
       developed.
4. (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.
{Development theory} (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}.
Syn: Unfolding; disclosure; unraveling; evolution;
     elaboration; growth.