ontogeny.

The development and changes of an individual organism across its life.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• the ontogeny of an organism
• ontogeny and phylogeny

On the page

The researchers reconstructed the organism’s ontogeny from specimens of different ages.

Its adult anatomy made sense only after she examined the earlier stages of ontogeny.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.