maldevelopment

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noun

The state of an organism or an organisation that did not develop in the "normal" way (used in medicine, e.g. "brain maldevelopment of a fetus").

OriginFrench maldéveloppement →
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Meanings

nounmaldevelopment (plural maldevelopments)

plural maldevelopments

  1. The state of an organism or an organisation that did not develop in the "normal" way (used in medicine, e.g. "brain maldevelopment of a fetus").
  2. Under the philosophy of sustainable development, poor economic, human or social development.

Origin

  1. Frenchmaldéveloppement
  2. Englishmaldevelopment

From French maldéveloppement, introduced as a human and social development term in France in the 1990s, to replace the words malformation or développement anormal. The word can be broken down as mal- (“ill”) + development.

More words from French

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

maldevelopment. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maldevelopment

MLA

“maldevelopment.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maldevelopment. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “maldevelopment,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maldevelopment.

Source: maldevelopment on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.