seedling
Americannoun
-
a plant or tree grown from a seed.
-
a tree not yet 3 feet (1 meter) high.
-
any young plant, especially one grown in a nursery for transplanting.
noun
-
A young plant, especially one that grows from a seed rather than from a cutting.
-
See Note at germination
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of seedling
Vocabulary lists containing seedling
Plants (Botany) - Introduction
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Plants (Botany) - Middle School
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Plants (Botany) - High School
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
This was as a result of feral goats who ate every tree seedling which then prevented the forest from regenerating.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
In both cases, peroxisomes expanded during the seed to seedling stage as expected.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 25, 2026
It’s using AI to pore over drone footage and calculate seedling survival rates—a process that’s typically labor-intensive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
Now it’s graduation day, when native plants coaxed from seedling trays to 1-gallon pots stand ready for planting on the crossing itself this month.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2025
Something in his chest hitched, a seedling of doubt that was rapidly beginning to grow into a proper tree.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
Research suggests these connections can play a crucial role in helping Joshua tree seedlings make it through their perilous early years and reach maturity.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
The government has promised to compensate for the swathes of trees cut down by planting seedlings in Haryana -- a northern state next to New Delhi.
From Barron's ● May 18, 2026
"In the beginning, everybody had the seedlings, so the crossing and then the seed pods give plants, but we at Floricultura introduced meristems," Stefan Kuiper tells me.
From BBC ● May 14, 2026
“It would take us eight years before the last patch was logged and our final seedlings established,” writes Ms. Simard.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Dell and Mai are both excited when they see the small, green seedlings.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
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.
