fetus

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fētus (“offspring”). Doublet of fawn.

noun

  1. (Australia, Canada, US) An unborn or unhatched vertebrate showing signs of the mature animal.
    Several feti were removed from every rats' uterus, stripped of their membranes and allowed to lie in the peritoneal cavity connected to the placenta by the umbilical cord and with the placenta still attached to the uterine wall. 1963, John W Choate, Henry A. Thiede, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Transcript, Volume 2
  2. (Australia, Canada, US) A human embryo after the eighth week of gestation.
    The sequence is: molecules in reproductive systems, then gametes, zygotes, morulas, blastocysts, and then fetuses.

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