The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Development \De*vel"op*ment\, n. [Cf. F. d['e]veloppement.]
   [Written also developement.]
   1. The act of developing or disclosing that which is unknown;
      a gradual unfolding process by which anything is
      developed, as a plan or method, or an image upon a
      photographic plate; gradual advancement or growth through
      a series of progressive changes; also, the result of
      developing, or a developed state.
      [1913 Webster]

            A new development of imagination, taste, and poetry.
                                                  --Channing.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Biol.) The series of changes which animal and vegetable
      organisms undergo in their passage from the embryonic
      state to maturity, from a lower to a higher state of
      organization.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Math.)
      (a) The act or process of changing or expanding an
          expression into another of equivalent value or
          meaning.
      (b) The equivalent expression into which another has been
          developed.
          [1913 Webster]

   4. (Mus.) The elaboration of a theme or subject; the
      unfolding of a musical idea; the evolution of a whole
      piece or movement from a leading theme or motive.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. A tract of land on which a number of buildings have been
      constructed; -- especially used for tract on which from
      two to hundreds of houses have been constructed by a
      commercial developer[4] for sale to individuals.
      [PJC]

   Development theory (Biol.), the doctrine that animals and
      plants possess the power of passing by slow and successive
      stages from a lower to a higher state of organization, and
      that all the higher forms of life now in existence were
      thus developed by uniform laws from lower forms, and are
      not the result of special creative acts. See the Note
      under Darwinian.

   Syn: Unfolding; disclosure; unraveling; evolution;
        elaboration; growth.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

development
    n 1: act of improving by expanding or enlarging or refining; "he
         congratulated them on their development of a plan to meet
         the emergency"; "they funded research and development"
    2: a process in which something passes by degrees to a different
       stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage); "the
       development of his ideas took many years"; "the evolution of
       Greek civilization"; "the slow development of her skill as a
       writer" [syn: development, evolution] [ant:
       degeneration, devolution]
    3: (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" [syn: growth, growing,
       maturation, development, ontogeny, ontogenesis] [ant:
       nondevelopment]
    4: a recent event that has some relevance for the present
       situation; "recent developments in Iraq"; "what a revolting
       development!"
    5: the act of making some area of land or water more profitable
       or productive or useful; "the development of Alaskan
       resources"; "the exploitation of copper deposits" [syn:
       exploitation, development]
    6: a district that has been developed to serve some purpose;
       "such land is practical for small park developments"
    7: a state in which things are improving; the result of
       developing (as in the early part of a game of chess); "after
       he saw the latest development he changed his mind and became
       a supporter"; "in chess your should take care of your
       development before moving your queen"
    8: processing a photosensitive material in order to make an
       image visible; "the development and printing of his pictures
       took only two hours" [syn: development, developing]
    9: (music) the section of a composition or movement (especially
       in sonata form) where the major musical themes are developed
       and elaborated

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

275 Moby Thesaurus words for "development":
   abiogenesis, access, accession, accomplishment, accretion, accrual,
   accruement, accumulation, action, addition, advance, advancement,
   aggrandizement, aging, amplification, anacrusis, anagnorisis,
   angle, appreciation, apprenticeship, archigenesis, architectonics,
   architecture, argument, ascent, atmosphere, augmentation,
   background, ballooning, basic training, bass passage,
   beautification, biogenesis, birth, blastogenesis, bloating,
   blossoming, boom, boost, bourdon, breaking, breeding, bridge,
   broadening, budding, buildup, burden, burgeoning, by-product,
   cadence, catastrophe, characterization, chorus, circumstance, coda,
   color, complication, condition, conditioning, consequence,
   consequent, continuity, contrivance, corollary, crescendo,
   cultivation, denouement, derivation, derivative, design,
   developmental change, device, digenesis, dilation, discipline,
   distillate, division, drill, drilling, edema, effect, elaboration,
   elevation, embellishment, enlargement, epigenesis, episode,
   eumerogenesis, event, eventuality, eventuation, evolution,
   evolutionary change, evolvement, evolving, excrescence, exercise,
   expansion, expatiation, explication, exposition, extension, fable,
   falling action, fetching-up, figure, flood, flowering, folderol,
   fostering, fruit, furtherance, gain, gemmation, generation,
   genesis, germination, gimmick, gradual change, greatening,
   grooming, growth, gush, happening, harmonic close, harvest,
   heterogenesis, hike, histogenesis, homogenesis, housebreaking,
   improvement, in-service training, incident, increase, increment,
   inflation, interlude, intermezzo, introductory phrase, isogenesis,
   issue, jump, leap, legacy, line, local color, logical outcome,
   manual training, maturation, maturescence, maturing, maturity,
   measure, mellowing, merogenesis, metagenesis, military training,
   monogenesis, mood, motif, mounting, movement, multiplication,
   musical phrase, musical sentence, mythos, natural development,
   natural growth, nonviolent change, nurture, nurturing, occurrence,
   offshoot, offspring, on-the-job training, ongoing, ornament,
   orthogenesis, outcome, outgrowth, overgrowth, pangenesis, part,
   parthenogenesis, passage, perfection, period, peripeteia,
   phenomenon, phrase, plan, plot, practice, precipitate, preparation,
   procreation, product, productiveness, progress, progression,
   proliferation, pullulation, raise, raising, readying, rearing,
   recognition, refinement, refrain, rehearsal, reproduction,
   resolution, response, result, resultant, ripening, rise,
   rising action, ritornello, scheme, seasoning, secondary plot,
   section, senescence, sequel, sequela, sequence, sequent, situation,
   slant, sloyd, snowballing, spontaneous generation, spread,
   sprouting, stanza, statement, story, strain, structure, subject,
   subplot, surge, swelling, switch, tailpiece, tempering,
   thematic development, theme, tone, topic, training, tumescence,
   tutti, tutti passage, twist, unfolding, up, upbringing, upgrowth,
   upping, upshot, upsurge, upswing, uptrend, upturn, variation,
   vegetation, verse, vocational education, vocational training,
   waxing, widening, working-out



The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

development

   The process of analysis, design, coding and testing software.