1. The act of shaping or forming in advance; prior formation.
2. A theory popular in the 18th century that all parts of an organism exist completely formed in the germ cell and develop only by increasing in size.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.