[ 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 <noun.process> he proposed an indicator of osseous development in children
Ontogenesis \On`to*gen"e*sis\, Ontogeny \On*tog"e*ny\, n. [See {Ontology}, and {Genesis}.] (Biol.) 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}.