the hypothetical process where life spontaneously formed from organic material that had arisen from inorganic material.
spontaneous generation, nonliving matter yielding life
The evolutionary idea of a rock turning into an amoeba. [See spontaneous generation
Not to be confused with "spontaneous generation," it is the theory that life originally arose from non-living matter, given the proper conditions during the early earth.
An early theory that held that some organisms originated from nonliving material.