developed

1. 1
   grew or madeverb

   Simple past and past participle of develop.

   Researchers developed a treatment that slowed the disease.

   Over the decade, the region developed into a major trade hub.

   UsageOften developed into + what something became: the region developed into a trade hub.

2. 2
   rich (country)adjective

   Wealthy and industrialized, with an advanced economy and modern industry: not poor or undeveloped.

   Several developed economies coordinated their response to the financial crisis.

   The gap in living standards between developed and poorer regions remains wide.

   UsageUsed of countries and economies (developed countries), not people. The usual opposite is developing: developing countries.

   Similarindustrialized, advanced, wealthy, rich, prosperous

   Oppositedeveloping, underdeveloped, emerging, poor

   Note

   A term of economics and international comparison, applied to countries and their economies rather than to people: The Economist writes of cash returning "virtually zero in many developed countries." In this pairing, developed implies high per-capita income, broad industrialization and mature financial markets.

3. 3
   fully formedadjective

   Grown, formed, or worked out to an advanced, complete, or mature state.

   The novel features a richly developed cast of characters.

   Her theory was far more developed than anyone had expected.

   UsageOften after well, fully or highly: a well-developed plot, a fully developed argument.

   Note

   The sense of growth by stages, where developed answers rudimentary. John Lubbock's The Origin of Civilisation traces ideas from "a rudimentary religion" up "into a more developed condition," and that ladder still shapes how the word is used of theories, characters and arguments.

4. 4
   adjective

   Of land or an area: built on, or provided with roads and services such as water and power.

   Most of the floodplain is now developed, leaving little open ground.

   A developed lot with water, sewer and power already in place costs far more than raw land at the edge of town.

   Note

   Land-use vocabulary: a plot, district or floodplain can count as developed when buildings, roads, drainage or utilities have been added to it, and the label matters in zoning and real estate. Its opposite is undeveloped or raw land. The stress falls on what has been built: homes and shops, but also the roads and services that make a place work.

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