embryo

noun6

1. •
   In the reproductive cycle, the stage after the fertilization of the egg that precedes the development into a fetus.

   • In situ hybridisations were performed on devitellinised embryos still wrapped around the yolk and on embryos with the yolk dissected away. — 2015
2. •
   An organism in the earlier stages of development before it emerges from the egg, or before metamorphosis.
3. •
   In a viviparous animal, the young animal's earliest stages in the mother's body.
4. •
   In a human, usually the cell growth of the child within the mother's body, through the end of the seventh week of pregnancy.
5. •
   A rudimentary plant contained in the seed.
6. •
   (figurative) The beginning; the first stage of anything.

   • […]while the Company little suspected what a noble Work I had then in Embryo […] — 1731