CONCEPTUS

• CONCEPTUS (noun)
  The noun CONCEPTUS has 1 sense:

1. an animal organism in the early stages of growth and differentiation that in higher forms merge into fetal stages but in lower forms terminate in commencement of larval life

  Familiarity information: CONCEPTUS used as a noun is very rare.

• CONCEPTUS (noun)

Meaning:

An animal organism in the early stages of growth and differentiation that in higher forms merge into fetal stages but in lower forms terminate in commencement of larval life

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

conceptus; fertilized egg; embryo

Hypernyms ("conceptus" is a kind of...):

animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)

Meronyms (parts of "conceptus"):

umbilical; umbilical cord (membranous duct connecting the fetus with the placenta)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conceptus"):

blastodermic vesicle; blastula (early stage of an embryo produced by cleavage of an ovum; a liquid-filled sphere whose wall is composed of a single layer of cells; during this stage (about eight days after fertilization) implantation in the wall of the uterus occurs)

gastrula (double-walled stage of the embryo resulting from invagination of the blastula; the outer layer of cells is the ectoderm and the inner layer differentiates into the mesoderm and endoderm)

morula (a solid mass of blastomeres that forms when the zygote splits; develops into the blastula)