Differentiation

1. n. The supposed act or tendency in being of every kind, whether organic or inorganic, to assume or produce a more complex structure or functions.
2. n. The act of differentiating.
3. n. The act of distinguishing or describing a thing, by giving its different, or specific difference; exact definition or determination.
4. n. The gradual formation or production of organs or parts by a process of evolution or development, as when the seed develops the root and the stem, the initial stem develops the leaf, branches, and flower buds; or in animal life, when the germ evolves the digestive and other organs and members, or when the animals as they advance in organization acquire special organs for specific purposes.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.