1. (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;
"he proposed an indicator of osseous development in children"
2. a progression from simpler to more complex forms;
"the growth of culture"
3. a process of becoming larger or longer or more numerous or more important;
"the increase in unemployment"
"the growth of population"
4. vegetation that has grown;
"a growth of trees"
"the only growth was some salt grass"
5. the gradual beginning or coming forth;
"figurines presage the emergence of sculpture in Greece"
6. (pathology) an abnormal proliferation of tissue (as in a tumor)