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gestation

noun

Simple meaning

The time when an animal or human offspring physically develops inside the mother's body until it is born.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

jehstayshuhn

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dʒɛsˈteɪʃən

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The period of time during which an animal or human offspring physically develops inside the mother's body until it is born.

  2. The period during which an embryo develops (about 266 days in humans)

  3. The conception and development of an idea or plan

  4. The process of development of a plan or idea.

Word at a Glance

Frequency
Uncommon

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Period / pregnant

gestation periodlong gestationlate gestationearly gestation

Other combinations

ectopic gestationgestation sacmultiple gestationgestation length

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • gestation periodnounCompound term

    The period during which an embryo develops (about 266 days in humans).

  • ectopic gestationnounCompound term

    Pregnancy resulting from gestation elsewhere than in the uterus.

  • extrauterine gestationnounCompound term

    Pregnancy resulting from gestation elsewhere than in the uterus.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • gestationaladjectiveRelated term

    Of or relating to gestation.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.