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.

Anatomically female but capable of self-fertilizing with their own supply of sperm, hermaphrodites remain emphatically uninterested in mating -- until their sperm supply runs dry.

From Science Daily • Mar. 14, 2024

To prevent the pea plant that was receiving pollen from self-fertilizing and confounding his results, Mendel painstakingly removed all of the anthers from the plant’s flowers before they had a chance to mature.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

He added that a single hermaphroditic, self-fertilizing jeffdanielsi can produce 160 babies in its lifespan.

From Salon • Jan. 20, 2022

The World Economic Forum and Scientific American team up to highlight technological advances that could change the world--from self-fertilizing crops, on-demand drug manufacturing, breath-sensing diagnostics to 3D-printed houses.

From Scientific American • Dec. 14, 2021

Some mutant grapes that normally would have had separate male and female individuals also became self-fertilizing hermaphrodites.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond