| / English Dictionary |
PREFORMATION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A theory (popular in the 18th century and now discredited) that an individual develops by simple enlargement of a tiny fully formed organism (a homunculus) that exists in the germ cell
Synonyms:
preformation; theory of preformation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("preformation" is a kind of...):
theory (a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena)
Derivation:
preform (form or shape beforehand or determine the shape of beforehand)
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