"preformation" meaning in English

See preformation in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /pɹiːfɔːˈmeɪʃ(ə)n/ [UK] Forms: preformations [plural]
Etymology: From pre- + formation. Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|pre|formation}} pre- + formation Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} preformation (countable and uncountable, plural preformations)
  1. Prior formation. Tags: countable, uncountable
    Sense id: en-preformation-en-noun-Pr5aK6dH
  2. (biology, historical) The theory that organisms are fully developed in the form of an egg or seed, and just increase in size (as opposed to epigenesis). Tags: countable, historical, uncountable Categories (topical): Biology
    Sense id: en-preformation-en-noun-oFQoJwCZ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms prefixed with pre-, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 19 81 Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with pre-: 44 56 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 24 76 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 8 92 Topics: biology, natural-sciences
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: praeformation

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "pre",
        "3": "formation"
      },
      "expansion": "pre- + formation",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From pre- + formation.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "preformations",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "preformation (countable and uncountable, plural preformations)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Prior formation."
      ],
      "id": "en-preformation-en-noun-Pr5aK6dH",
      "links": [
        [
          "formation",
          "formation"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Biology",
          "orig": "en:Biology",
          "parents": [
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "19 81",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "44 56",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with pre-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "24 76",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "8 92",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial, published 2004, page 174:",
          "text": "Preformation, as even Aristotle spotted, merely postpones the problem, for how did the homunculus get its shape?",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The theory that organisms are fully developed in the form of an egg or seed, and just increase in size (as opposed to epigenesis)."
      ],
      "id": "en-preformation-en-noun-oFQoJwCZ",
      "links": [
        [
          "biology",
          "biology"
        ],
        [
          "theory",
          "theory"
        ],
        [
          "organism",
          "organism"
        ],
        [
          "egg",
          "egg"
        ],
        [
          "seed",
          "seed"
        ],
        [
          "epigenesis",
          "epigenesis#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(biology, historical) The theory that organisms are fully developed in the form of an egg or seed, and just increase in size (as opposed to epigenesis)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "historical",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "biology",
        "natural-sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/pɹiːfɔːˈmeɪʃ(ə)n/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "praeformation"
    }
  ],
  "word": "preformation"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms prefixed with pre-",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "pre",
        "3": "formation"
      },
      "expansion": "pre- + formation",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From pre- + formation.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "preformations",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "preformation (countable and uncountable, plural preformations)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Prior formation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "formation",
          "formation"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with historical senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Biology"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial, published 2004, page 174:",
          "text": "Preformation, as even Aristotle spotted, merely postpones the problem, for how did the homunculus get its shape?",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The theory that organisms are fully developed in the form of an egg or seed, and just increase in size (as opposed to epigenesis)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "biology",
          "biology"
        ],
        [
          "theory",
          "theory"
        ],
        [
          "organism",
          "organism"
        ],
        [
          "egg",
          "egg"
        ],
        [
          "seed",
          "seed"
        ],
        [
          "epigenesis",
          "epigenesis#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(biology, historical) The theory that organisms are fully developed in the form of an egg or seed, and just increase in size (as opposed to epigenesis)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "historical",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "biology",
        "natural-sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/pɹiːfɔːˈmeɪʃ(ə)n/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "praeformation"
    }
  ],
  "word": "preformation"
}

Download raw JSONL data for preformation meaning in English (1.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (f90d964 and 9dbd323). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.