plant

American  

[plant, plahnt] / plænt, plɑnt /

noun

• plants
  plural

1. Botany. any member of the kingdom Plantae, comprising multicellular organisms that typically produce their own food from inorganic matter by the process of photosynthesis and that have more or less rigid cell walls containing cellulose, including vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, and hornworts: some classification schemes may include fungi, algae, bacteria, and certain single-celled eukaryotes that have plantlike qualities, as rigid cell walls or the use of photosynthesis.

2. an herb or other small vegetable growth, in contrast with a tree or a shrub.

3. a seedling or a growing slip, especially one ready for transplanting.

4. the equipment, including the fixtures, machinery, tools, etc., and often the buildings, necessary to carry on any industrial business.

   a manufacturing plant.

5. the complete equipment or apparatus for a particular mechanical process or operation.

   the heating plant for a home.

6. the buildings, equipment, etc., of an institution.

   the sprawling plant of the university.

7. Slang. something intended to trap, decoy, or lure, as criminals.

8. Slang. a scheme to trap, trick, swindle, or defraud.

9. a person, placed in an audience, whose rehearsed or prepared reactions, comments, etc., appear spontaneous to the rest of the audience.

10. a person placed secretly in a group or organization, as by a foreign government, to obtain internal or secret information, stir up discontent, etc.

11. Theater. a line of dialogue, or a character, action, etc., introducing an idea or theme that will be further developed at a later point in the play.

    Afterward we remembered the suicide plant in the second act.

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verb (used with object)

• plants,
  present (3rd person singular)
• planted,
  past participle,  past
• planting
  present participle

1. to put or set in the ground for growth, as seeds, young trees, etc.

2. to furnish or stock (land) with plants.

   to plant a section with corn.

3. to establish or implant (ideas, principles, doctrines, etc.).

   to plant a love for learning in growing children.

4. to introduce (a breed of animals) into a country.

5. to deposit (young fish, or spawn) in a river, lake, etc.

6. to bed (oysters).

7. to insert or set firmly in or on the ground or some other body or surface.

   to plant posts along a road.

8. Theater. to insert or place (an idea, person, or thing) in a play.

9. to place; put.

10. to place with great force, firmness, or determination.

    He planted himself in the doorway as if daring us to try to enter. He planted a big kiss on his son's cheek.

11. to station; post.

    to plant a police officer on every corner.

12. to locate; situate.

    Branch stores are planted all over.

13. to establish (a colony, city, etc.); found.

14. to settle (persons), as in a colony.

15. to say or place (something) in order to obtain a desired result, especially one that will seem spontaneous.

    The police planted the story in the newspaper in order to trap the thief.

16. Carpentry. to nail, glue, or otherwise attach (a molding or the like) to a surface.

17. to place (a person) secretly in a group to function as a spy or to promote discord.

18. Slang. to hide or conceal, as stolen goods.

plant ¹ British  

/ plɑːnt /

noun

1. any living organism that typically synthesizes its food from inorganic substances, possesses cellulose cell walls, responds slowly and often permanently to a stimulus, lacks specialized sense organs and nervous system, and has no powers of locomotion

2. such an organism that is green, terrestrial, and smaller than a shrub or tree; a herb

3. a cutting, seedling, or similar structure, esp when ready for transplantation

4. informal a thing positioned secretly for discovery by another, esp in order to incriminate an innocent person

5. billiards snooker a position in which the cue ball can be made to strike an intermediate which then pockets another ball

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verb

1. (often foll by out) to set (seeds, crops, etc) into (ground) to grow

2. to place firmly in position

3. to establish; found

4. to implant in the mind

5. slang to deliver (a blow)

6. informal to position or hide, esp in order to deceive or observe

7. to place (young fish, oysters, spawn, etc) in (a lake, river, etc) in order to stock the water

plant ² British  

/ plɑːnt /

noun

1. 1. the land, buildings, and equipment used in carrying on an industrial, business, or other undertaking or service

   2. ( as modifier )

      plant costs

2. a factory or workshop

3. mobile mechanical equipment for construction, road-making, etc

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plant Scientific  

/ plănt /

1. Any of a wide variety of multicellular eukaryotic organisms, belonging to the kingdom Plantae and including the bryophytes and vascular plants. Plant cells have cell walls made of cellulose. Except for a few specialized symbionts, plants have chlorophyll and manufacture their own food through photosynthesis. Most plants grow in a fixed location and reproduce sexually, showing an alternation of generations between a diploid stage (with each cell having two sets of chromosomes) and haploid stage (with each cell having one set of chromosomes) in their life cycle. The first fossil plants date from the Silurian period. Formerly the algae, slime molds, dinoflagellates, and fungi, among other groups, were classified as plants, but now these are considered to belong to other kingdoms.

2. See Table at taxonomy

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subplant
  noun
• misplant
  verb (used with object)
• overplant
  verb (used with object)
• preplant
  verb (used with object)
• underplant
  verb (used with object)
• plantable
  adjective
• plantless
  adjective
• plantlike
  adjective
• self-planted
  adjective
• unplantable
  adjective
• unplanted
  adjective
• well-planted
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• plants
  plural

Participles

• planting
  present
• planted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• plant
  simple
• plants
  simple
• have planted
  perfect
• has planted
  perfect
• am planting
  progressive
• are planting
  progressive
• is planting
  progressive
• have been planting
  perfect progressive
• has been planting
  perfect progressive

Past

• planted
  simple
• had planted
  perfect
• was planting
  progressive
• were planting
  progressive
• had been planting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will plant
  simple
• will have planted
  perfect
• will be planting
  progressive
• will have been planting
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of plant

First recorded before 900; Middle English noun plaunt(e), plant(e); in part continuing Old English plante “sapling, young plant,” from Latin planta “a shoot, sprig, scion (for planting), plant”; in part from Old French plante, from Latin planta; Middle English verb plaunten, planten; in part continuing Old English plantian, from Latin plantāre “to plant”; in part from Old French planter, from Latin plantāre

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Explanation

A plant is a living thing that loves dirt, sun, and water but can’t move. That tree outside? Plant. Your dog? Not a plant. A plant can also be a factory, like a nuclear power plant. Trees, flowers, and vegetables are all plants, and you help them get started every time you plant a seed in soil. Another kind of plant is a factory or another business where goods are manufactured, and then there's the plant that means "spy or informer." The Latin root of plant is planta, "sprout or shoot," which may stem from plantare, "push into the ground with the feet," from planta, "sole of the foot."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

plant plants planted planting

The plant is highly automated, but workers still have to remove items that cannot be processed and regularly inspect waste to check what is being sent for recycling.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026

The Wolverhampton plant, opened in 1903 and which employs more than 1,500 people, is a key site among the 11 facilities acquired by Safran from Collins Aerospace.

From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026

A few weeks later, Dole announced it was expanding its vegetable processing plant.

From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2026

Holston got a boost with a $1 billion modernization investment from the Army, which owns the plant, but the timeline for the upgrades has slipped from 2025 to 2029 or beyond.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026

On the inland side of the plant, workers gathered at the exit gates.

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland

In other recycling plants, dozens of workers might be exposed.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026

In recent years, the country has also encouraged the use of compressed natural gas to power vehicles, with natural gas plants and filling stations set up mostly in the largest city, Dar es Salaam.

From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026

One of several bills signed this week is a law to advance the use of virtual power plants to make greater use of clean energy at home.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026

The rapid shift to EVs and plug-in hybrids means China also has too many old-school plants churning out cars with traditional internal combustion engines.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

Now, for the first time, Schleiden sees living cells in plants.

From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman

It said it tests its water twice a year for Legionnaires', and has planted 2,000 trees.

From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026

He said the site has grown over the years, with a new community orchid and a national art project, where artists have planted a circle of oak trees.

From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026

Since 2021, the National Trust said it had planted 125,000 trees and created 35 hectares of woodland and 52 hectares of wood pasture, with another 77 hectares of tree planting currently being designed.

From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026

One of his children now says a conversation about his estate planning proves I planted the idea.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026

The giant log where Clare had recently planted the feather whites had been kicked down the gentle incline, killing every precious blue-blue in its wake.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

With less heat on her than Christmas Day in Blackpool, Maya started planting a seed that roundtable "chief investigator" Michael Sheen might be up to something.

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026

Under a policy based on the premise that the dead trees, or “snags,” will become fuel for future devastating wildfires and hinder planting of replacement trees, the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

A former OpenAI employee accused of planting a recording device at the company's San Francisco offices was ordered held without bail Monday after a federal judge deemed him a flight risk.

From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2026

On Tuesday, Saudi OpenAI employee Abdulrahman Alfozan was charged with planting a recording device behind a conference room TV.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

And then there were my ideas for planting a garden and looking to improve children’s health and nutrition on a larger scale.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

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Related Words

• bury
• cover
• farm
• grow
• implant
• raise
• scatter
• sow
• transplant

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