Embryonic

How to spell embryonic

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce embryonic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does embryonic mean?

1. adjectiveIn a very early stage of development, undeveloped or only just beginning.

Embryonic in a sentence

• The start-up shared its embryonic plans for a new payment app.

• Funding was scarce while the research was still in its embryonic phase.

Where does embryonic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek embryon, which literally meant 'a young one that grows within', built from the prefix en- meaning 'in' and the verb bryein meaning 'to swell' or 'to grow'. The idea was of something swelling and developing inside the body before birth. Greek embryon passed into Medieval Latin as embryo, and English borrowed the noun during the 1500s as a term for the unborn offspring in its earliest stages. The adjective embryonic was coined later, in the early 1800s, by adding the familiar -ic ending, and it quickly broadened beyond biology to describe anything in a very early, undeveloped state. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the unstressed 'bryon' chunk hides a 'y' where many writers expect an 'i', a direct fossil of that original Greek bryein 'to grow'.

How the word is built

• embryo (from Greek embryon: an unborn young, that which grows within)
• -ic (adjective suffix: relating to)