seed

English Online Dictionary. What means seed‎? What does seed mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) enPR: sēd, IPA^(key): /siːd/
• Rhymes: -iːd
• Homophones: cede, sede

Etymology 1

From Middle English seed, sede, side, from Old English sēd, sǣd (“seed, that which is sown”), from Proto-West Germanic *sād, from Proto-Germanic *sēdą, from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow, throw”).

Cognate with West Frisian sied (“seed”), Dutch zaad (“seed”), Low German Saad (“seed”), German Saat (“sowing; seed”), Icelandic sæði (“seed”), Danish sæd (“seed”), Swedish säd (“seed”), Latin satiō (“seeding, time of sowing, season”). More at sow.

Alternative forms

• sede (obsolete)

Noun

seed (countable and uncountable, plural seeds)

1. (countable, botany) A fertilized and ripened ovule, containing an embryonic plant.
3. (countable) Any small seed-like fruit.

4. (countable, agriculture) Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs.
5. (uncountable, collective) An amount of seeds that cannot be readily counted.

6. (countable) A fragment of coral.
7. (uncountable) Semen.
8. (countable, figurative) A precursor.

   Synonym: germ

9. (countable) The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.
   1. (sports) The initial position of a competitor or team in a tournament. (seed position)

   2. The competitor or team occupying a given seed. (seed position)

   4. (cryptography) The initialization state of a pseudorandom number generator or similar system. (seed number)
   5. (Internet marketing) A commercial message in a creative format placed on relevant sites on the Internet. (seed idea or seed message)

10. (now rare) Offspring, descendants, progeny.
11. Race; generation; birth.
12. (physics) A small particle, bubble, or imperfection that serves as a nucleation point for some process.
13. A small bubble formed in imperfectly fused glass.

Usage notes

(botany, agriculture): The common use of seed differs from the botanical use. The “seeds” of sunflowers are botanically fruits.

Hyponyms

• crack seed

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

seed (third-person singular simple present seeds, present participle seeding, simple past and past participle seeded)

1. (transitive) To plant or sow an area with seeds.

2. (transitive) To cover thinly with something scattered; to ornament with seedlike decorations.
3. (transitive) To start; to provide, assign or determine the initial resources for, position of, state of.

4. (sports, gaming) To allocate a seeding to a competitor.
5. (Internet, transitive) To leave (files) available for others to download through peer-to-peer file sharing protocols (e.g. BitTorrent).
6. (intransitive) To be qualified to compete, especially in a quarter-final, semi-final, or final.

7. (meteorology) To scatter small particles within (a cloud or airmass) in order to trigger the formation of rain.

8. (intransitive) To produce seed.
9. (intransitive) To grow to maturity.
10. (slang, vulgar) To ejaculate inside the penetratee during intercourse, especially in the rectum.

Derived terms

• overseed
• self-seed

Translations

Etymology 2

From see +‎ -d (“past tense suffix; variant of -ed”).

Verb

seed

1. (dialectal) simple past and past participle of see

Anagrams

• sede, EDES, dese, dees, Edes

Chinese

Etymology

Borrowed from English seed.

Pronunciation

Noun

seed (Hong Kong Cantonese, Internet slang)

1. one who provides the files to others to download through peer-to-peer file sharing protocols (e.g. BitTorrent)
2. file(s) that are available for download through peer-to-peer file sharing protocols (e.g. BitTorrent)
3. serial number or code of Japanese adult videos

See also

• 爆seed

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English sǣd, sēd, from Proto-West Germanic *sād, *sādi, from Proto-Germanic *sēdiz, *sēdą, from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (compare sowen).

Alternative forms

• ceed, ceede, sed, sede, sedde, seede, seide, seod, seth, seyd, seyde, side, syd, zed
• sad, sæd, sæt (Early Middle English)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /seːd/, /sɛːd/

Noun

seed (plural sedes)

1. seed (ovule or analogous structure):
   1. A kind or variety of seed.
   2. (collectively) seed, grain
2. (figuratively) germ, origin
3. semen, sperm (or the supposed female equivalent)
4. offspring, progeny
5. descendants, lineage
6. (rare) bit, granule
7. (rare) seeding, sowing

Derived terms

• seden

Descendants

• English: seed
• Scots: seed, seid, sid
• Yola: zeade

References

• “sẹ̄d, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Noun

seed

1. Alternative form of seden (“to seed”)