seed English
Noun
( wikipedia seed)
(senseid)(countable) A fertilized grain, initially encased in a fruit, which may grow into a mature plant.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
, title= Wild Plants to the Rescue
, volume=101, issue=3, magazine=( American Scientist)
, passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
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(countable, botany) A fertilized ovule, containing an embryonic plant.
(uncountable) An amount of fertilized grain that cannot be readily counted.
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(uncountable) Semen.
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(countable) A precursor.
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(countable) The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.
# The initial position of a competitor or team in a tournament. (seed position)
- The team with the best regular season record receives the top seed in the conference tournament.
# The competitor or team occupying a given seed. (seed position)
- The rookie was a surprising top seed .
# Initialization state of a . (seed number)
- If you use the same seed you will get exactly the same pattern of numbers.
# Commercial message in a creative format placed on relevant sites on the Internet. (seed idea or seed message)
- The latest seed has attracted a lot of users in our online community.
Offspring, descendants, progeny.
- the seed of Abraham
* 1590 , , II.x:
- Next him king Leyr in happie peace long raind, / But had no issue male him to succeed, / But three faire daughters, which were well vptraind, / In all that seemed fit for kingly seed
Race; generation; birth.
* Waller
- Of mortal seed they were not held.
Usage notes
The common use of seed differs from the botanical use. The “seeds” of sunflowers are botanically fruits.
Derived terms
* crack seed
* go to seed
* seedcake
* seedling
* seed potato
* seedy
* spill one's seed
Verb
( en verb)
To plant or sow an area with seeds.
- I seeded my lawn with bluegrass.
To cover thinly with something scattered; to ornament with seedlike decorations.
* Ben Jonson
- a sable mantle seeded with waking eyes
To start; to provide, assign or determine the initial resources for, position of, state of.
- A venture capitalist seeds young companies.
- The tournament coordinator will seed the starting lineup with the best competitors from the qualifying round.
- The programmer seeded fresh, uncorrupted data into the database before running unit tests.
(sports, games) To allocate a seeding to a competitor.
To be able to compete (especially in a quarter-final/semi-final/final).
- The tennis player seeded into the quarters.
To ejaculate inside the penetratee during intercourse, especially in the rectum.
Anagrams
*
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offspring English
Noun
( en-noun)
A person's daughter(s) and/or son(s); a person's children.
All a person's descendants, including further generations.
An animal or plant's progeny, an animal or plant's young.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katrina G. Claw
, title= Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm
, volume=101, issue=3, magazine=( American Scientist)
, passage=In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.}}
(figuratively) Another produce, result of an entity's efforts.
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(computing) A process launched by another process.
Usage notes
* The form offsprings is also used for the plural, especially the computing sense.
Synonyms
* baby/babies, child/children, issue (plural only), get
* (all descendants) descendants, lineage, progeny, get, binary clone
Antonyms
* genitor (rare), parent, progenitor, father (male), mother (female)
* (descendants) ancestors, forbears/forebears, forefathers
Derived terms
* donor offspring
* parent-offspring conflict
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