germinal
Other forms: germinally
Germinal, an adjective, describes something that is just starting to happen, like all the planning you did and people you got interested in joining the running club when it was just an idea. That's the germinal stage.
To correctly pronounce germinal, accent the first syllable: "JER-mih-nul." You can see and hear germ in germinal. It comes from the Latin word germen, or "sprout, bud, sprig, offshoot." So, something in its germinal stage is just beginning, like when you are thinking about possible topics for the research report you are going to write.
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containing seeds of later developmentsynonyms: originative, seminaloriginalbeing or productive of something fresh and unusual; or being as first made or thought of
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Vocabulary lists containing germinal
In this engaging work of nonfiction, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee delves into genetics, tracing how our scientific understanding of genes and heredity has changed over time.
This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel follows the career of a cynical politician during the Great Depression.