incubation

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Sitting on eggs for the purpose of hatching young; a brooding on, or keeping warm, to develop the life within, by any process.
  2. The development of a disease from its causes, or the period of such development.
  3. A period of little reaction which is followed by more rapid reaction.
  4. One of the four proposed stages of creativity (preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification): the unconscious recombination of thought elements that were stimulated through conscious work at one point in time, resulting in novel ideas at a later point.
  5. Sleeping in a temple or other holy place in order to have oracular dreams or to receive healing.

Pronunciation

/ɪnkjuːˈbeɪʃən/ /ɪnkjuˈbeɪʃən/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-incubation.wav LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-incubation.wav

Word forms

incubation incubations

Etymology

From Latin incubātiō, from incubō (“to lie on”).

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.