germen
Americannoun
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germens,
plural
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germina
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of germen
From Latin, dating back to 1595–1605; see origin at germ
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:
The germen becomes a round woody capsule, compressed at the ends like an orange, divided into twelve cells, each containing a flat oblong seed.
From Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume II (of 2) A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present day by Anonymous
It is here manifestly impossible to select the more sterile individuals, which have already ceased to yield seeds; so that the acme of sterility, when the germen alone is affected, cannot be gained through selection.
From The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Vol. I by Charles Darwin
Mr. Berkeley found no difficulty, and had the stem impregnated as well as the germen.
From Fungi: Their Nature and Uses by M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt) Cooke
But the stamens, being shorter than the germen, cannot discharge the pollen so as to throw it upon the stigma, as the flower stands always upright till after impregnation.
From The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe
The germen afterwards becomes a large, oblong, fleshy fruit, of a fine yellow colour, and containing a flat seed covered with a woolly substance.
From Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume II (of 2) A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present day by Anonymous
It was as if the treasure of Nature's germens were tumbling all together.
From Stephen Archer and Other Tales by George MacDonald
Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once, That make ingrateful man!
From King Lear by William Shakespeare
In the light of such a thought, we can see how Nature might, when solitary Adam lived, fulfil Lear's wild conjuration, and "All the germens spill At once that make ingrateful man."
From The Destiny of the Soul A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life by William Rounseville Alger
Crack nature's molds, all germens spill at once, That make ingrateful men!
From Shakspere, Personal Recollections by John A. Joyce
Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once That make ungrateful man....
From The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and Modern Times by Alfred Biese
The germina of resurrection are concealed in extinct bodies, as in the blood of men; the ashes of roses will again revive into roses, though smaller and paler than if they had been planted.
From The Browning Cyclop?dia A Guide to the Study of the Works of Robert Browning by Edward Berdoe
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.
