Word.ws English Dictionary

neotenia

neotenia is the alternative form of neoteny.

Meaning of neoteny

Noun

neoteny (countable and uncountable, plural neotenies)

  1. The retention of juvenile characteristics in the adult.
    • Most amphibians are aquatic only while young, but some amphibians with neoteny remain aquatic even as adults.
  2. The sexual maturity of an organism still in its larval stage.

Questions about neotenia

What is neotenia the alternative form of?
Neotenia is the alternative form of neoteny.

Words near neotenia in the dictionary

  1. neoteleostian
  2. neoteleosts
  3. neotendon
  4. neotendons
  5. neotene
  6. neotenia
  7. neotenic
  8. neotenic complex syndrome
  9. neotenics
  10. neotenies
  11. neotenin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: neotenia (page history and authors); neoteny (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “neotenia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/neotenia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.