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

“Robot Dreams” was her first book, one that took its time to germinate.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2024

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

A new sensation begins to germinate inside me.

From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins

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

Microgreens are simply the cotyledons or seed leaves, that first emerge from a seed when it germinates.

From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2023

Community germinates during class, through empathetic eye contact with a neighbor while breathing heavily during a tough workout.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 10, 2022

The starch in the seeds provides food for the embryo as it germinates and can also act as a source of food for humans and animals.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

If it germinates at all, the young tree is so tiny and feeble that bushes, weeds, and grass, overtop and smother it.

From What I know of farming: a series of brief and plain expositions of practical agriculture as an art based upon science by Greeley, Horace

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

But Schneider and her colleagues believe there’s probably a healthy collection of seeds in the soil from previous years that hasn’t germinated yet that could help it recover when conditions are right.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 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

Mr Biddulph said now they are "recognised as malting ovens, used to heat partially germinated grain to produce malt".

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2024

Either they were bulbs she had already planted or they had been in the sack so long they had germinated.

From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison

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

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2025

Yet even though they’ve held a raft of public hearings and workshops on potential new laws and regulations, another plan is germinating behind closed doors.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 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

Geometric wooden “sculpture pods” inspired by germinating seeds will reference the Maya belief of life growing out of darkness.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 19, 2023

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