sprout
Americanverb (used without object)
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sprouts,
present (3rd person singular)
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sprouted,
past participle, past
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sprouting
present participle
verb (used with object)
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sprouts,
present (3rd person singular)
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sprouted,
past participle, past
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sprouting
present participle
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to cause to sprout.
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to remove sprouts from.
Sprout and boil the potatoes.
noun
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sprouts
plural
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a shoot of a plant.
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a new growth from a germinating seed, or from a rootstock, tuber, bud, or the like.
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something resembling or suggesting a sprout, as in growth.
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a young person; youth.
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sprouts,
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the young shoots of alfalfa, soybeans, etc., eaten as a raw vegetable.
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verb
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(of a plant, seed, etc) to produce (new leaves, shoots, etc)
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to begin to grow or develop
new office blocks are sprouting up all over the city
noun
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a newly grown shoot or bud
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something that grows like a sprout
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See Brussels sprout
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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undersproutnoun
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resproutverb
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undersproutverb (used without object)
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nonsproutingadjective
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unsproutedadjective
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unsproutingadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sproutsimple
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sproutssimple
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have sproutedperfect
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has sproutedperfect
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am sproutingprogressive
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are sproutingprogressive
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is sproutingprogressive
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have been sproutingperfect progressive
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has been sproutingperfect progressive
Past
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sproutedsimple
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had sproutedperfect
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was sproutingprogressive
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were sproutingprogressive
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had been sproutingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sprout
1150–1200; (v.) Middle English spr ( o ) uten, Old English -sprūtan, in āsproten (past participle; see a- 3); cognate with Middle Dutch sprūten, German spriessen to sprout; akin to Greek speírein to scatter; (noun) Middle English; compare Middle Dutch, Middle Low German sprute
Explanation
A sprout is a small growth on a plant — a little new bud. Other things can sprout too: kids are constantly sprouting (growing). The key thing to think of when you're trying to remember the meaning of sprout is growth — as a noun, a sprout is a new growth of a plant, and as a verb, to sprout means to grow. Sprouting mainly applies to height and to the young, whether you're talking about plants, people, or things. An older person who gains fifty pounds is growing but not sprouting.
Vocabulary lists containing sprout
Bud, Not Buddy
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Seedfolks
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Old Yeller
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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:
Burnt-sienna vines twist through simmering ocher air, while flora sprout through these roiling masses in hues of chromium oxide and cadmium green.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
Sometimes the seeds of discontent get planted early, only to sprout with the turn of the seasons.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026
Recalling where certain plants sprout first in the spring can help hungry animals find important nutrients.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
The Buck Moon, which was named after the time male deer sprout new antlers, will rise on 29 July.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
I can’t let this seed of a thing between those two take root, sprout, and become some sort of full-blown love affair.
From "Pride" by Ibi Zoboi
"Bracken sprouts almost immediately because its rhizomes sit deep in the soil, so the burn layer wouldn't maybe have impacted those" she said.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
For the gardeners: At first, they look like unassuming sprouts.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
An outbreak of E. coli and salmonella linked to alfalfa sprouts has sickened dozens of people across 15 states, public-health officials said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
The fields of Eshtiwi show only the first faint signs of growth in June, with small green sprouts emerging around the village.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Like that Ethan’s favorite vegetable is brussels sprouts.
From "P.S. I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy
England will want to build on the green shoots of recovery that sprouted in Leeds.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Surveillance software sprouted in every cranny of the ballpark, first in service of providing more data for teams and front offices to pore over, then as fuel for ever more esoteric betting propositions.
From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2026
Others have flocked to civil-defense groups, which have sprouted up in cities around Taiwan in recent years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
Posters and murals featuring his beatific brown face sprouted across Mexican American communities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
She had watered those seeds with water hauled from the lake, makuk after makuk of water, until they sprouted and grew.
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
We are a culture enamored of the child prodigy, the precocious upstart, the tender sprouting genius.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
I know it as the “most exciting Asian American coffee hotspot,” a title that, I feel, represents both a very cool thing happening for sprouting businesses and sometimes also the fourth horseman of the apocalypse.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2026
In late May, Morticia’s handlers noticed something sprouting well above the surface of her pot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
It will take about a year before we see the tips of the trees sprouting through the plastic tubes, however, it will be at least 100 years before the trees are properly grown.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
“That granddaughter of yours is sprouting like a weed!”
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
