germinate

American  

[jur-muh-neyt] / ˈdʒɜr məˌneɪt /

verb (used without object)

• germinates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• germinated,
  past participle,  past
• germinating
  present participle

1. to begin to grow or develop.

2. Botany.

   1. to develop into a plant or individual, as a seed, spore, or bulb.

   2. to put forth shoots; sprout; pullulate.

3. to come into existence; begin.

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verb (used with object)

• germinates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• germinated,
  past participle,  past
• germinating
  present participle

1. to cause to develop; produce.

2. to cause to come into existence; create.

germinate British  

/ ˈdʒɜːmɪˌneɪt /

verb

1. to cause (seeds or spores) to sprout or (of seeds or spores) to sprout or form new tissue following increased metabolism

2. to grow or cause to grow; develop

3. to come or bring into existence; originate

   the idea germinated with me

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• germination
  noun
• germinator
  noun
• nongermination
  noun
• regermination
  noun
• regerminate
  verb
• germinable
  adjective
• nongerminating
  adjective
• ungerminated
  adjective
• ungerminating
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• germinating
  present
• germinated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• germinate
  simple
• germinates
  simple
• have germinated
  perfect
• has germinated
  perfect
• am germinating
  progressive
• are germinating
  progressive
• is germinating
  progressive
• have been germinating
  perfect progressive
• has been germinating
  perfect progressive

Past

• germinated
  simple
• had germinated
  perfect
• was germinating
  progressive
• were germinating
  progressive
• had been germinating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will germinate
  simple
• will have germinated
  perfect
• will be germinating
  progressive
• will have been germinating
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

germinate germinates germinated germinating

Jumping straight into a list of major to-dos would leave little time for ideas to germinate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026

And getting certification is a rigorous, costly process, as seeds need to be tested in a laboratory for their purity and things like how well they germinate.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2025

For instance, certain types of organic molecules formed in soil during fires are needed for many seeds to germinate.

From Science Daily ● May 14, 2024

Across California and Arizona, there are stretches of desert that can quickly transform into dense fields of wildflowers, since seeds lie dormant in the soil and then germinate and blossom at around the same time.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 20, 2024

But there is a danger point beyond that, because the seeds I have are already two years old, and next year they will be three, and each year fewer of them will germinate.

From "Z for Zachariah" by Robert C. O’Brien

Normally, a pollen grain that sticks to the stigma of a flower during pollination germinates into a long tube that grows straight and unbranched through the ovary to the ovules, where fertilisation takes place.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 16, 2024

Meadowfoam germinates in early fall well in advance of winter weeds.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 30, 2023

Phi29 instructs the cell to package its DNA into the spore, killing the budding bacteria once the spore germinates.

From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2022

The need some feel to atone germinates a perceived opportunity for redemption; humans initially, ignorantly and irrationally feared the tiger-like creature, believing it to be a danger to them and their sheep.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 26, 2021

It lives, it germinates, it grows, it springs up into the stately plant, and is crowned with beauty.

From A Theodicy, or, Vindication of the Divine Glory by Albert Taylor Bledsoe

It is easy to laugh at the childlike naiveté of sending seeds to Mars, an idea that never germinated.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026

Now tens of thousands of nursery-grown seedlings are mixed with the hundreds of thousands that germinated naturally.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2026

Once the grains germinated in a laboratory, the seedlings were planted in water in June, and harvesting began in early October.

From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2025

Boxes full of fresh onions in the courtyard have now germinated.

From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2025

So they saw that they had to plant more seedpod trees for the sake of the oil, but the pods were so hard that they seldom germinated.

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman

Don’t trample or pick the flowers and stay on the paths because even barren ground could have seeds germinating beneath.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026

Deadwood-decomposing fungi feed germinating orchids, providing the carbon their tiny seeds don't have.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2025

When I was here in March covering Mr Gething’s victory, the seeds of his political demise were germinating before our eyes.

From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2024

In a final step, the researchers used a chemical process to confirm whether the excreted seeds were capable of germinating.

From Science Magazine ● May 8, 2024

I put the drawing of the man with the germinating brain in my room on the wall where I can see it when I roll over.

From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Related Words

• sprout