seedling

American  

[seed-ling] / ˈsid lɪŋ /

noun

1. a plant or tree grown from a seed.

2. a tree not yet 3 feet (1 meter) high.

3. any young plant, especially one grown in a nursery for transplanting.

---

seedling British  

/ ˈsiːdlɪŋ /

noun

1. a very young plant produced from a seed

---

seedling Scientific  

/ sēd′lĭng /

1. A young plant, especially one that grows from a seed rather than from a cutting.

2. See Note at germination

---

Etymology

Origin of seedling

First recorded in 1650–60; seed + -ling ¹

Example Sentences

Now tens of thousands of nursery-grown seedlings are mixed with the hundreds of thousands that germinated naturally.

From Los Angeles Times

Efforts to replant acacias are underway, Tayeb of the Khartoum forestry administration said, but seedlings grow slowly and can take years to mature.

From Barron's

“Maybe you boys could plant some of the seedlings,” she suggested.

From Literature

I bought some plastic cups on my last recycling run, and tomorrow I’m going to dig up all those seedlings and sneak them into Rockledge.

From Literature

“Most of the fire area is like this, where it would have killed a few of the seedlings and saplings but basically almost nothing else,” Hanson said.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• flower
• grass
• herb
• shrub
• tree
• vine
• weed