Hypertext Webster Gateway: "preformation"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Preformation \Pre`for*ma"tion\, n. (Biol.)
An old theory of the pre["e]xistence of germs. Cf.
{Embo[^i]tement}.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
preformation
n : a theory (popular in the 18th century and now discredited)
that an individual develops by simple enlargement of a
tiny fully formed organism (a homunculus) that exists in
the germ cell [syn: {theory of preformation}]
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