seedling
Americannoun
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a plant or tree grown from a seed.
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a tree not yet 3 feet (1 meter) high.
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any young plant, especially one grown in a nursery for transplanting.
noun
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A young plant, especially one that grows from a seed rather than from a cutting.
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See Note at germination
Etymology
Origin of seedling
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.
Unlike a few of the seedling apples we’d tasted—some of which foragers evocatively call “spitters”—this was fruit I’d cut up to serve with thick slices of cheddar.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 10, 2025
Still, if cooler conditions are supporting better seedling survival, those Joshua tree populations may still end up being healthier than those in places farther south, where flowering is increasing, Yoder said.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 15, 2024
King Charles has been given the first seedling grown from the Sycamore Gap tree after it was illegally felled.
From BBC • May 27, 2024
This makes it more likely for the plant seedling to encounter the fungi it needs for its own sustenance, the researchers argue.
From Science Daily • May 8, 2024
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
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.
