germinate
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.
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Jumping straight into a list of major to-dos would leave little time for ideas to germinate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
And getting certification is a rigorous, costly process, as seeds need to be tested in a laboratory for their purity and things like how well they germinate.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2025
“Robot Dreams” was her first book, one that took its time to germinate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
Across California and Arizona, there are stretches of desert that can quickly transform into dense fields of wildflowers, since seeds lie dormant in the soil and then germinate and blossom at around the same time.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 20, 2024
Maybe we all have in us a secret pond where evil and ugly things germinate and grow strong.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
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Normally, a pollen grain that sticks to the stigma of a flower during pollination germinates into a long tube that grows straight and unbranched through the ovary to the ovules, where fertilisation takes place.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 16, 2024
Meadowfoam germinates in early fall well in advance of winter weeds.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 30, 2023
Phi29 instructs the cell to package its DNA into the spore, killing the budding bacteria once the spore germinates.
From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2022
The starch in the seeds provides food for the embryo as it germinates and can also act as a source of food for humans and animals.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
Indeed, more so, for on the earth the ordinary fungus, as a rule, germinates after sunset, and often dies when the sun rises, while here they may grow in peace eternally.
From Etidorhpa or the End of Earth. The Strange History of a Mysterious Being and The Account of a Remarkable Journey by John Uri Lloyd
It is easy to laugh at the childlike naiveté of sending seeds to Mars, an idea that never germinated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
Those were the starter trees that spread the seed that had germinated and was now thriving in the open sunlight.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 28, 2025
Once the grains germinated in a laboratory, the seedlings were planted in water in June, and harvesting began in early October.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2025
Mr Biddulph said now they are "recognised as malting ovens, used to heat partially germinated grain to produce malt".
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2024
Either they were bulbs she had already planted or they had been in the sack so long they had germinated.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
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Deadwood-decomposing fungi feed germinating orchids, providing the carbon their tiny seeds don't have.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2025
“I’m very interested in committing myself to helping raw milk emerge as a constructive, high standards, healthy, wonderful, germinating, delicious food.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2024
As Lee and Johnsen prepare for the next growing season, they’re nurturing hundreds of plants inside the atrium of their home as well as germinating and starting new plants from seedlings.
From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2024
In a final step, the researchers used a chemical process to confirm whether the excreted seeds were capable of germinating.
From Science Magazine ● May 8, 2024
I put the drawing of the man with the germinating brain in my room on the wall where I can see it when I roll over.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
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Vocabulary lists containing germinate
Stump Speech: Tree Terminology
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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The Martian
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