gestation

UK/d͡ʒɛsˈteɪʃən/US/d͡ʒɛsˈteɪʃən/

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,146 of 15,258leans written

Gestation is the carrying of young before birth, or the forming of an idea. A long gestation.

The period varies enormously, from twenty days in a mouse to twenty-two months in an elephant. A book with a long gestation is one that took years before anything was written.

Definitions of gestation

1noungestationThe carrying of young before birth, or the forming of an idea.C1
“The gestation of that film ran to eleven years.”

gestation is a period.

Where it comes from

Latin
gestātiō
English, today
gestation

Learned borrowing from Latin gestātiō.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

gestation in the wild

Mammals during pregnancy can have one or more gestations at the same time, for example in a multiple birth.
Gestation
The time interval of a gestation is called the gestation period.
Gestation
Late termination of pregnancy, also referred to as late-term abortion in political contexts, describes the termination of pregnancy by inducing labor during a late stage of gestation.
Late termination of pregnancy
A marsupial has a short gestation period, typically shorter than placental.
List of mammalian gestation durations
The gestation figures given here are shown in days.
List of mammalian gestation durations

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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