n 1 e 1 o 1 t 1 e 1 n 1 y 4
7 letters · 10 points in Scrabble
Meaning
noun an evolutionary trend to be born earlier so that development is cut off at an earlier stage and juvenile characteristics are retained in adults of the species
originFrom German Neotenie, coined in 1884 by anatomist Julius Kollmann from Ancient Greek νέος (néos, “young”) + τείνειν (teínein, “to tense”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0