What does "develop" mean?

1. (to grow or improve) to grow or change into something more advanced or stronger. 2. (to create or design) to design or build something new, like a product or a plan. 3. (to acquire a habit or illness) to start to have a problem, a sickness, or a new habit. 4. (photography) to use chemicals to make pictures appear on film. 5. (math/logic) to work out a mathematical problem to show all the steps.

develop — meaning, definition & examples

Word

01to grow or improve

A2 · Elementary

v. to grow or change into something more advanced or stronger.

v. to progress through a sequence of stages toward a more advanced, effective, or mature state.

“The small village developed into a busy town over the last twenty years.”

“As the child's motor skills develop, they become increasingly capable of performing complex tasks that require fine hand-eye coordination.”

Synonyms

grow evolve mature

Antonyms

regress deteriorate

02to create or design

B1 · Intermediate

v. to design or build something new, like a product or a plan.

v. to bring into being or make active; to elaborate or expand in detail.

“The company is developing a new app to help people track their fitness.”

“The research team spent three years developing a sustainable alternative to single-use plastics before the product was ready for the mass market.”

Synonyms

create design formulate

Antonyms

destroy abandon

03to acquire a habit or illness

B2 · Upper Intermediate Medicine

v. to start to have a problem, a sickness, or a new habit.

v. to become affected by a disease or to begin to exhibit a specific habit or trait over time.

“He developed a bad cough after walking home in the cold rain.”

“Patients who lead sedentary lifestyles are statistically more likely to develop chronic cardiovascular issues later in life.”

Synonyms

contract acquire

04photography

B1 · Intermediate

v. to use chemicals to make pictures appear on film.

v. to treat exposed photographic film with chemicals to render the latent image visible.

“I need to take this roll of film to the shop to have it developed.”

“Before digital cameras became standard, photographers spent hours in darkrooms carefully developing their own black-and-white prints.”

Synonyms

process

05math/logic

C1 · Advanced Mathematics Technical

v. to work out a mathematical problem to show all the steps.

v. to expand an algebraic expression or a mathematical argument by performing a series of operations.

“The teacher asked the students to develop the equation on the board.”

“The mathematician sought to develop a new proof that would reconcile the conflicting results observed in the previous two studies.”

Synonyms

expand elaborate

Antonyms

simplify

Common phrases and expressions where native English speakers use the word “develop” in context.

01. develop ability 02. develop approach 03. develop capacity 04. develop concept 05. develop framework 06. develop hypothesis 07. develop idea 08. develop means 09. develop method 10. develop methodology 11. develop model 12. develop network

Borrowed from French développer, from Middle French desveloper, from Old French desveloper, from des- + voloper, veloper, vloper (“to wrap, wrap up”) (compare Italian sviluppare, Old Italian alternative form goluppare (“to wrap”)) from Vulgar Latin vloppō, wloppō (“to wrap”) ultimately from Proto-Germanic wrappaną, wlappaną (“to wrap, roll up, turn, wind”), from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to turn, bend”) http://www.wordnik.com/words/envelop. Akin to Middle English wlappen (“to wrap, fold”) (Modern English lap (“to wrap, involve, fold”)), Middle English wrappen (“to wrap”), Middle Dutch lappen (“to wrap up, embrace”), dialectal Danish vravle (“to wind, twist”), Middle Low German wrempen (“to wrinkle, scrunch, distort”), Old English wearp (“warp”). The word acquired its modern meaning from the 17th-century belief that an egg contains the animal in miniature and matures by growing larger and shedding its envelopes.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Grow evolve create improve design acquire produce

deteriorate decline shrinkstagnate

VERB

develop(A2)

NOUN

ADJECTIVE

ADVERB