spawn

American  

[spawn] / spɔn /

noun

• spawn,
  plural
• spawns
  plural

1. Zoology. the mass of eggs deposited by fishes, amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans, etc.

2. Mycology. the mycelium of mushrooms, especially of the species grown for the market.

3. Usually Disparaging. a swarming brood; numerous progeny.

   Diners at the restaurant were annoyed by the two inconsiderate parents and their unruly spawn.

4. any person or thing regarded as the offspring of some stock, idea, etc.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the spawning of a character or item in a video game: the spawn rate.

   a spawn point;

   the spawn rate.

verb (used without object)

• spawns,
  present (3rd person singular)
• spawned,
  past participle,  past
• spawning
  present participle

1. to deposit eggs or sperm directly into the water, as fishes.

2. (of a character or item in a video game) to originate at a fixed point in an existing game environment.

   An enemy character just spawned right on top of me!

verb (used with object)

• spawns,
  present (3rd person singular)
• spawned,
  past participle,  past
• spawning
  present participle

1. to produce (spawn).

2. to give birth to; give rise to.

   His sudden disappearance spawned many rumors.

   Synonyms:

   beget, yield, generate, engender

3. to produce in large number.

4. to plant with mycelium.

spawn British  

/ spɔːn /

noun

1. the mass of eggs deposited by fish, amphibians, or molluscs

2. derogatory offspring, product, or yield

3. botany the nontechnical name for mycelium

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verb

1. (of fish, amphibians, etc) to produce or deposit (eggs)

2. derogatory (of people) to produce (offspring)

3. (tr) to produce or engender

spawn Scientific  

/ spôn /

1. The eggs of water animals such as fish, amphibians, and mollusks.

2. Offspring produced in large numbers.

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1. To lay eggs; produce spawn.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• spawner
  noun
• unspawned
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• spawn
  plural
• spawns
  plural

Participles

• spawning
  present
• spawned
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• spawn
  simple
• spawns
  simple
• have spawned
  perfect
• has spawned
  perfect
• am spawning
  progressive
• are spawning
  progressive
• is spawning
  progressive
• have been spawning
  perfect progressive
• has been spawning
  perfect progressive

Past

• spawned
  simple
• had spawned
  perfect
• was spawning
  progressive
• were spawning
  progressive
• had been spawning
  perfect progressive

Future

• will spawn
  simple
• will have spawned
  perfect
• will be spawning
  progressive
• will have been spawning
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of spawn

1350–1400; Middle English spawnen (v.), probably < Anglo-French espaundre ( Old French espandre ) to expand

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Explanation

Technically, the mass of small eggs laid by animals like fish, frogs, mollusks is called spawn. But the word has been borrowed to mean offspring, or the act of making them in general. When someone is in league with the devil, a preacher might refer to them as “Satan’s spawn.” Your dad probably find something satanic in the kids next door when he refers to them as the neighbor’s spawn. Bill Gates’ programming project in college spawned Microsoft, a multi-billion dollar industry giant.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

spawn spawns spawned spawning

Scientists recently found that, since the dams came down, salmon have rapidly returned to spawn upstream, reoccupying 88% of their historical areas.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Warmer seas help spawn Pacific hurricanes, which have already battered Hawai‘i this year. As I write this, rhyming storms named Polo and Nolo threaten to bring flooding to Hawai‘i and Mexico.

From Slate ● Sep. 28, 2026

All that hype has led to “Practical Magic” being misremembered as a movie good enough to spawn a follow-up.

From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026

The area will then be made more fish-friendly by building in natural steps that will increase habitats and allow the creatures to move up and down stream and spawn.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

The judge is saying that what Mr. Gui has captured in his fabulous sculpture is the love between a parent and a parent’s spawn, something no one understands better than the vuvv.

From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson

The Severn Estuary is home to huge numbers of sprats and salmon, and the twaite shad, a protected migrating species which spawns in the tributaries of the River Severn.

From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026

There will be a backlash against local and regional businesses owned by private equity that spawns a new wave of growth in family-owned and operated businesses.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2025

The largest wild Baltic salmon stock spawns in the Tornio and Kalix Rivers in northern Finland and Sweden and has high ecological and societal value.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 5, 2024

“It may be examined as well for its interaction with the institutions of the society which spawns it.”

From New York Times ● Jul. 15, 2023

I had thought there were many of them in the East and the Middle West, but California spawns them like herrings.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck

The disappearance of Earhart, an American aviation pioneer who was attempting to circumnavigate the globe with navigator Fred Noonan, has spawned decades of speculation.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

The buzz has also spawned a slew of similar offerings, both open-source models and tools from established companies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

It spawned six spin-offs and became one of AMC’s most influential shows.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

A boom in artificial intelligence has spawned the building of large data centers, while a rising stock market has increased demand for financial advice.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

Within a few millennia that single ancestral Polynesian society had spawned on those diverse islands a range of diverse daughter societies, from hunter-gatherer tribes to proto-empires.

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

It said that although many were unaware of the repercussions, gold panning could lead to prosecution and sentencing "where it risks disturbing spawning fish and impacting river habitats".

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

The Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians monitors water quality for algal blooms and cleans up spawning creeks that get clogged with sediment and trash.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

"But it carries major risks of spawning emotional over-reliance and distorted social cognition," he wrote.

From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026

And how and why were they surviving, spawning and getting so big?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

Early one misty Saturday morning, he and Harry worked their way through a dripping tangle of cottonwoods and alders lining the Dungeness, evading the game warden who regularly patrolled the river during salmon- spawning season.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

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Related Words

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