seminal

[ sem-uh-nl ]

adjective

1. pertaining to, containing, or consisting of semen.
2. Botany. of or relating to seed.
3. having possibilities of future development.
4. highly original and influencing the development of future events:

   a seminal artist; seminal ideas.

   Synonyms: innovative, formative, primary, germinal

seminal

/ ˈsɛmɪnəl /

adjective

1. potentially capable of development
2. highly original, influential, and important
3. rudimentary or unformed
4. of or relating to semen

   seminal fluid

5. biology of or relating to seed

Derived Forms

• ˌsemiˈnality, noun
• ˈseminally, adverb

Other Words From

• semi·nali·ty noun
• semi·nal·ly adverb
• inter·semi·nal adjective
• pre·semi·nal adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of seminal¹

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin sēminālis, equivalent to sēmin- (stem of sēmen ) seed, semen + -ālis -al ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of seminal¹

C14: from Late Latin sēminālis belonging to seed, from Latin sēmen seed

Example Sentences

The fall of 2014 proves a powerfully seminal time for Wolfe.

From Washington Blade

In one seminal study, a team from Stanford used lasers to measure brain activity from two people playing a collaboration game side by side.

From Singularity Hub 

It turned out to be a seminal moment, not only for Fortune, but for the development of stakeholder capitalism.

From Fortune

For those like Wedbush Securities’s Dan Ives, the big earnings beats are “another seminal moment in this cloud transformation underway and put more fuel into this rally in cyber security names across the board,” Ives wrote in a note Thursday.

From Fortune

It represents a seminal moment in the history of the internet.

From TechCrunch

In the long sweep of LGBT equality, it could have stood as a seminal moment.

From The Daily Beast

I had some real seminal experiences in [California] … I was a weird kid and it was a weird place and it just fit.

From The Daily Beast

Capital in the Twenty-First Century is already being hailed as a seminal work of economic thought, and with very good reason.

From The Daily Beast

His Seven Pillars of Wisdom is one of the seminal war memoirs of this or any time.

From The Daily Beast

[the seminal pulp crime magazine which first published Hammett].

From The Daily Beast

Without her aid, this seminal principle of mischief, this root of Upas, could not have been planted.

From Project Gutenberg

Thereupon his anxiety became extreme, and simultaneously he experienced his first seminal emission.

From Project Gutenberg

On one occasion, however, he had a seminal emission during the night in association with a feeling of anxiety.

From Project Gutenberg

In his seminal dreams, the image of the rose always played a leading part.

From Project Gutenberg

We may also, in this connexion, think of the seminal emissions sometimes observed in cases of suicidal hanging.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• influential