botany A minute rudimentary plant contained within a seed or an archegonium.

Roget 153: cause, origin, source, principle, element; occasioner^†, prime mover, primum mobile [Lat.]; vera causa [Lat.]; author etc. (producer) 164; mainspring; agent; leaven; groundwork, foundation etc. (support) 215.    spring, fountain, well, font; fountainhead, spring head, wellhead; fons et origo [Lat.], genesis; descent etc. (paternity) 166; remote cause; influence.    pivot, hinge, turning point, lever, crux, fulcrum; key; proximate cause, causa causans [Lat.]; straw that breaks the camel's back.    ground; reason, reason why; why and wherefore, rationale, occasion, derivation; final cause etc. (intention) 620; les dessous des cartes [Fr.]; undercurrents.    rudiment.    egg, germ, embryo, bud, root, radix radical, etymon, nucleus, seed, stem, stock, stirps, trunk, tap-root, gemmule^†, radicle, semen, sperm.    nest, cradle, nursery, womb, nidus, birthplace, hotbed.    causality, causation; origination; production etc. 161.    ... show more

Dutch: kiemplant
Polish: zarodek

An animal organism in the early stages of growth and differentiation that in higher forms merge into fetal stages but in lower forms terminate in commencement of larval life.

synonyms: conceptus, fertilized egg.

Dutch: foetus, embryo, vrucht
Polish: zarodek, embrion