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
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of seedling
Vocabulary lists containing seedling
Plants (Botany) - Introduction
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Plants (Botany) - Middle School
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Plants (Botany) - High School
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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:
The 73-year-old bought a seedling online five years ago and planted it in a greenhouse outside his Miami home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
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 the shade beneath the fading giant, a seedling had sprouted.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
"It was only then that we were able to see that PEX11 is clearly involved in controlling the growth of the peroxisome during the seed to seedling stage."
From Science Daily ● Apr. 25, 2026
Not only is there water, but the soil in the dambo is deep black and full of nutrients that a little tobacco seedling requires to grow strong.
From "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba
But in the case of the power line planting, temperature and rainfall data failed to fully explain why so many of the seedlings didn’t establish, Polyakov said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
However, the cloned seedlings are cultivated and grown, again over years, to another selection point.
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
The seedlings and saplings are mostly knee-high to chest-high and mixed with thickets of ceanothus and other post-fire brush growing amid the true giants that stand dead among them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2026
A hard winter had been followed by no sign of spring, and Maesie had delayed planting at first, hoping for sunshine and warmth before she subjected her seedlings to the cold earth.
From "Huntress" by Malinda Lo
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.
