Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🦠 Time before symptoms 🚀 Development phase
incubation period

incubation period

3.8
A time when people develop a new product or idea before public release
  • noun
  • /ˌɪŋkjʊˈbeɪʃən ˈpɪərɪəd/
  • Jargon
translation icon : período de incubación
  • Industry analysts said the long incubation period signaled careful development rather than rushed market release.

Examples

  • During the incubation period, engineers tested prototypes and quietly secured essential patents and partnerships.

  • The startup spent three years in an incubation period refining its AI model before investors noticed.

  • The incubation period is crucial.

  • It has a short incubation period.

  • The startup's incubation period lasted six months before they launched their product to the public.

  • During the incubation period, the team focused on refining their business model and developing a prototype.

  • Many innovative ideas experience an incubation period where they are nurtured and improved before being introduced to the market.

Synonyms

early days
vsincubation period
96 3.4

The first period when a project or activity is just starting

is a private organized phase focused on preparing something for public release

How Developed

release
590 2.9
incubation period
  • Jargon
3.8
to prototype
1 4.2

Surface Forms

incubation period singular
incubation periods plural

Morphology

incubation + period

The phrase literally combines 'incubation' (a developmental or biological nurturing phase) with 'period' (a measured interval), so a learner who knows both words can infer a general sense of a time when something develops. However, its specific use for products, technologies, ideas or startups is a metaphorical extension of the biological sense and may require domain knowledge or exposure, so the relation is only partially predictable.

Etymology

The phrase incubation period is also used for ideas and companies and comes from the same image of keeping an egg warm until it is ready to hatch. So, it means a quiet time when a product or startup grows 'before public release'.