sprout
Americanverb (used without object)
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sprouts,
present (3rd person singular)
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sprouted,
past participle, past
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sprouting
present participle
verb (used with object)
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sprouts,
present (3rd person singular)
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sprouted,
past participle, past
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sprouting
present participle
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to cause to sprout.
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to remove sprouts from.
Sprout and boil the potatoes.
noun
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sprouts
plural
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a shoot of a plant.
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a new growth from a germinating seed, or from a rootstock, tuber, bud, or the like.
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something resembling or suggesting a sprout, as in growth.
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a young person; youth.
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sprouts,
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the young shoots of alfalfa, soybeans, etc., eaten as a raw vegetable.
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verb
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(of a plant, seed, etc) to produce (new leaves, shoots, etc)
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to begin to grow or develop
new office blocks are sprouting up all over the city
noun
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a newly grown shoot or bud
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something that grows like a sprout
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See Brussels sprout
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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undersproutnoun
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resproutverb
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undersproutverb (used without object)
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nonsproutingadjective
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unsproutedadjective
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unsproutingadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sproutsimple
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sproutssimple
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have sproutedperfect
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has sproutedperfect
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am sproutingprogressive
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are sproutingprogressive
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is sproutingprogressive
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have been sproutingperfect progressive
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has been sproutingperfect progressive
Past
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sproutedsimple
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had sproutedperfect
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was sproutingprogressive
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were sproutingprogressive
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had been sproutingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sprout
1150–1200; (v.) Middle English spr ( o ) uten, Old English -sprūtan, in āsproten (past participle; see a- 3); cognate with Middle Dutch sprūten, German spriessen to sprout; akin to Greek speírein to scatter; (noun) Middle English; compare Middle Dutch, Middle Low German sprute
Explanation
A sprout is a small growth on a plant — a little new bud. Other things can sprout too: kids are constantly sprouting (growing). The key thing to think of when you're trying to remember the meaning of sprout is growth — as a noun, a sprout is a new growth of a plant, and as a verb, to sprout means to grow. Sprouting mainly applies to height and to the young, whether you're talking about plants, people, or things. An older person who gains fifty pounds is growing but not sprouting.
Vocabulary lists containing sprout
Bud, Not Buddy
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Seedfolks
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Old Yeller
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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.
See Examples For:
Recalling where certain plants sprout first in the spring can help hungry animals find important nutrients.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
The Buck Moon, which was named after the time male deer sprout new antlers, will rise on 29 July.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
Here, inside of a tightly symmetrical structure, Giotto places the followers of Jesus speaking in tongues—flames sprout from their heads—while onlookers, separated by a low wall, view the scene with bafflement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026
The cinema is a place where new ideas sprout and beliefs are forged.
From Salon ● Apr. 9, 2026
If tear drops could have made a fence post sprout roots and grow, that post would have grown twenty feet tall.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
Of 37 vegetable categories NielsenIQ tracked, 28 showed sales declines over the same period, including carrots, cauliflower, spinach and brussels sprouts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
The fields of Eshtiwi show only the first faint signs of growth in June, with small green sprouts emerging around the village.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Like every year, Tehran’s Tajrish Square was crammed with stalls piled high with hyacinth, garlic and sprouts, while some featured mini-pools holding tiny goldfish, all traditional elements of the haft-sin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2026
One example is a multipaneled sketch that shows what happens when you drop a seed and watch it grow in stages, first when it sprouts and then when leaves come out.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 16, 2026
"We have come for every creature that sprouts quills," the Terrible Things thundered.
From "Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust" by Eve Bunting
Enclaves like this sprouted across Germany in areas occupied by U.S. forces after World War II, shaping the society around them for several generations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
Surveillance software sprouted in every cranny of the ballpark, first in service of providing more data for teams and front offices to pore over, then as fuel for ever more esoteric betting propositions.
From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2026
Posters and murals featuring his beatific brown face sprouted across Mexican American communities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
And he also sprouted up to 6-foot-7, which didn’t hurt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2026
The seed of resentment in his stomach had cracked open, sprouted bitter branches.
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
The central stalk, called a spadix, can grow above caretakers’ heads just weeks after first sprouting above the soil.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Visitors can expect yellows and splashes of orange, with more flowers sprouting every day.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2026
Images of seabirds, fish, and sprouting maize appear together on textiles, ceramics, pottery, wall carvings and paintings.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 7, 2026
"The seeds are sprouting and the harvest is coming," Hichilema said, touting a planned nationwide geological survey to map untapped deposits.
From Barron's ● Feb. 15, 2026
Everyone was quiet as they walked through the silvery moonlight, past rows and rows of sprouting crops, and out to the farthest corner of the farthest field.
From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown
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.
