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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  

/ pəˈlɪnɪk, 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

Etymology

Origin of pollen

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

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

AI software can identify each open blossom and direct a robotic arm — or a worker — to release pollen with the precision needed to avoid deformed fruit.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026

To investigate the coatings, the researchers performed structural, molecular, and pollen analyses.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026

The pollen recovered from Ilovik-Paržine 1 pointed to a wide range of environments.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026

This feeding behavior may protect them from consuming excessive amounts of certain amino acids when pollen does not provide the nutritional mix they need.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

Since then, though, scientific measurements, mainly of pollen in lake sediments, have shown that the Maya did cut down much of the region’s forest, using the wood for fuel and the land for agriculture.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

"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 will remain high or very high for many areas of England.

From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2026

Pollen and Isherwood’s resolution to export gave the navy of the other noisiest champion—the U.S.—the opportunity to pirate them too.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 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

Some of the most common tree pollens that cause allergies include birch, cedar, cottonwood, maple, elm, oak and walnut, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 22, 2024

“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

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

Related Words

• antigen
• dander
• irritant
• ragweed