germinate
Americanverb (used without object)
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to begin to grow or develop.
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Botany.
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to develop into a plant or individual, as a seed, spore, or bulb.
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to put forth shoots; sprout; pullulate.
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to come into existence; begin.
verb (used with object)
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to cause to develop; produce.
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to cause to come into existence; create.
verb
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to cause (seeds or spores) to sprout or (of seeds or spores) to sprout or form new tissue following increased metabolism
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to grow or cause to grow; develop
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to come or bring into existence; originate
the idea germinated with me
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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germinationnoun
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germinatornoun
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germinableadjective
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ungerminatingadjective
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regerminationnoun
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ungerminatedadjective
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nongerminatingadjective
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regerminateverb
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nongerminationnoun
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have germinatedperfect
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has germinatedperfect 3rd person singular
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am germinatingprogressive 1st person singular
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germinatingparticiple
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is germinatingprogressive 3rd person singular
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have been germinatingperfect progressive
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has been germinatingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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are germinatingprogressive
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germinatessingular 3rd person
Past
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had germinatedperfect
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germinatedparticiple
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had been germinatingperfect progressive
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was germinatingprogressive singular
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were germinatingprogressive plural
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germinatedsimple
Future
Etymology
Origin of germinate
1600–10; < Latin germinātus (past participle of germināre to sprout, bud), equivalent to germin- ( see germinal) + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
To germinate is to grow or to develop. When a tiny seedling cracks through a seed casing and sprouts, it has germinated. The term is used for other things too, like when an idea germinates into a film or book. Sometimes you want things to germinate, like the heirloom tomato seeds in your backyard garden. Sometimes what germinates is not desirable — like how joblessness, economic problems, and generations of anti-Semitism provided a fertile ground for Nazism to germinate in pre-war Germany. The word's roots are in botany, but it has grown, or dare we say germinated, to be used for any time something grows and develops.
Vocabulary lists containing germinate
Stump Speech: Tree Terminology
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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The Martian
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Germinate, jėrm′in-āt, v.i. to spring from a germ: to begin to grow.—v.t. to produce.—adj.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
Germinate it cannot without some external influence, or communion, so to speak, with the elements from which it derives its sustenance and support.
From The American Republic : constitution, tendencies and destiny by Brownson, Orestes Augustus
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
