1. (

• development ,
• evolution ,

) a process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage); "the development of his ideas took many years"; "the evolution of Greek civilization"; "the slow development of her skill as a writer" ;

2. (

• evolution ,
• organic_evolution ,
• phylogeny ,
• phylogenesis

) (biology) the sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms ;