germinate

American  

[jur-muh-nayt] / 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

For example, some seeds in the soil rely on heat shock or smoke to germinate.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2025

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

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

And when a seed is dropped in, it can easily germinate and take root and push its tender new leaves toward the sun and begin the marvelous process of photosynthesis.

From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau

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

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

Rake as much of the seed as possible into the aeration holes; grass seed that germinates on top of the sod layer rarely survives.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 22, 2017

The seed should be planted in early spring, while the ground is moist, as it germinates very slowly.

From Farm Gardening with Hints on Cheap Manuring Quick Cash Crops and How to Grow Them by Anonymous

Eight seedlings successfully germinated, with two now transferred to Logan Botanic Garden, where the climate is considered particularly suitable for rare Chilean plants.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

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

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

The idea of mixed selectivity germinated in 2000 when Miller and colleague John Duncan defended a surprising result from a study of cognition in Miller's lab.

From Science Daily ● May 10, 2024

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

And while the concept for the memorial is still germinating, Nina has already pinned down the title.

From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2026

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

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2025

“I’m very interested in committing myself to helping raw milk emerge as a constructive, high standards, healthy, wonderful, germinating, delicious food.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2024

As Lee and Johnsen prepare for the next growing season, they’re nurturing hundreds of plants inside the atrium of their home as well as germinating and starting new plants from seedlings.

From Seattle Times ● May 22, 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