preformation Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun 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
    theory of preformation.

WordNet


Pre`for*ma"tion noun
Definitions
  1. (Biol.) An old theory of the preëxistence of germs. Cf. Embo&icir;tement.

Webster 1913