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• pollen
  pollen

  noun

  the fertilizing element of flowering plants, consisting of fine, powdery, yellowish grains or spores, sometimes in masses.
• Pollen
  Pollen

  noun

  Daniel. 1813–96, New Zealand statesman, born in Ireland: prime minister of New Zealand (1876)

pollen

American  

[pol-uhn] / ˈpɒl ən /

noun

• pollens
  plural

1. the fertilizing element of flowering plants, consisting of fine, powdery, yellowish grains or spores, sometimes in masses.

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verb (used with object)

1. to pollinate.

pollen ¹ British  

/ ˈpɒlən /

noun

1. a fine powdery substance produced by the anthers of seed-bearing plants, consisting of numerous fine grains containing the male gametes

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Pollen ² British  

/ ˈpɒlən /

noun

1. Daniel. 1813–96, New Zealand statesman, born in Ireland: prime minister of New Zealand (1876)

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pollen Scientific  

/ pŏl′ən /

1. Powdery grains that contain the male reproductive cells of most plants. In gymnosperms, pollen is produced by male cones or conelike structures. In angiosperms, pollen is produced by the anthers at the end of stamens in flowers. Each pollen grain contains a generative cell, which divides into two nuclei (one of which fertilizes the egg), and a tube cell, which grows into a pollen tube to conduct the generative cell or the nuclei into the ovule. The pollen grain is the male gametophyte generation of seed-bearing plants. In gymnosperms, each pollen grain also contains two sterile cells (called prothallial cells), thought to be remnants of the vegetative tissue of the male gametophyte.

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pollen Cultural  

1. The male sex cells in plants. In flowering plants, pollen is produced in thin filaments in the flower called stamens. (See fertilization and pollination.)

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Discover More

When pollen is carried into the air by the wind, it frequently causes allergic reactions (see allergy) in humans.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pollenless
  adjective
• pollenlike
  adjective
• pollinic
  adjective
• pollinical
  adjective
• unpollened
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pollens
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of pollen

1515–25; < New Latin, special use of Latin: fine flour, mill dust

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Explanation

Pollen is the grainy stuff inside a flowering plant that makes it possible for the plant to reproduce. Insects, birds, people, and the wind help to spread pollen between plants. When pollen spreads to the female part of a plant, it germinates, or begins the process of growing a new plant. When pollen spreads like this, it's called pollination, and it's how plants reproduce. Pollen is great for plants but not so great if you have hay fever, an allergy to pollen. The first meaning of pollen was "fine flour," which is what pollen looks like.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pollen Pollen pollens

As an archaeologist in southern Scandinavia, I studied peat cores for pollen, fallen into nearby wetlands centuries earlier, to understand the nature of the historical plant life and climate of a particular site.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Bogong moths are thought to help plants spread pollen and are also a key food source for the mountain pygmy possum, a critically endangered cave-dwelling marsupial.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

The disease is carried by the Asian citrus psyllid, a non-native insect so tiny it can be mistaken for pollen.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

Beware of lilies, which are toxic to cats; even chewing the leaves or licking pollen off their fur while grooming can be fatal.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

Annabeth stood there, stunned, as yellow dust—the remains of Arachne—rained around her like tree pollen.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

"Pollen has been very useful in identifying different coatings where the molecular profiles were identical."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026

Pollen collected by bumblebees contained between two and seven times more heavy metals than pollen collected by honeybees across most of the metals examined.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 7, 2026

Pollen levels are forecast to be high or very high in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but should remain low or moderate in Scotland.

From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026

Pollen can also trigger asthma attacks and allergic reactions in people living with other respiratory conditions.

From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026

They made Pollen Boy right in the center of the white corn painting.

From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko

They also produced artificial foods designed to mimic either the amino acid composition of different pollens or the composition of honeybee tissues.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

It is estimated that 13 million people in the UK suffer from hay fever - an allergy to different pollens.

From BBC ● May 30, 2025

“We’ve now got three different dating techniques—radiocarbon dating of the seeds, radiocarbon dating of the pollens and luminescence dating of the quartz—that all show people were there.”

From Scientific American ● Oct. 5, 2023

Climate scientists at the University of Michigan looked at 15 different plant pollens in the United States and used computer simulations to calculate how much worse allergy season will likely get by the year 2100.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2022

Here, lodged in transparent cells, are the pollens, love-ferment of every flower of spring, making brilliant splashes of red and yellow, of black and mauve.

From The Life of the Bee by Alfred Sutro

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