noun.
In biology, the history of the individual development of an organized being, as distinguished from phylogenesis, or the history of genealogical development, and from biogenesis, or life-development generally. Also ontogeny.
the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
noun.
The history of the individual development of an organism; the sequence of events involved in the development of an organism; the history of the evolution of the germ; the development of an individual organism, -- in distinction from phylogeny, or evolution of the tribe. Called also henogenesis, henogeny.
noun.
the arising or development of an individual organism.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun.
(biology) the process of an individual organism growing organically; a purely biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level
Word Usage
"The existence of switches that steer ontogenesis between disparate but functional developmental pathways raises the question of which came first – the switches or the pathways?"