Meaning

noun act of improving by expanding or enlarging or refining

noun a process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage)

noun (biology) the process of an individual organism growing organically; a purely biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level

originFrom French développement, from Old French desvelopemens (“unrolling”). By surface analysis, develop + -ment. First attested in 1756.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0