germinate
7 synonyms and 3 antonyms for germinate, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Verb — For a seed, to start growing and send out roots and leaves.
Synonyms
Everyday swaps
Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. verb
For a seed, to start growing and send out roots and leaves.
Opposites
2. verb
To make something start growing, or to produce it.
“These were business hours, and a feeling of loneliness crept over him, perhaps germinated by his sight of the illustrated papers, and accentuated by an attempted perusal of them.”
Opposites
Etymology
From oblique stem of Latin germen, germinis (“shoot, sprout, bud”) + -ate, from germinātus (“sprouted, budded, grown”), past participle of germinō (“to sprout, bud, grow”), from germen, germinis (“shoot, sprout, bud”).
Full origin of germinate →