germinate

/ˌdʒʌrməˈneɪt/

/ˈdʒʌmɪneɪt/

Other forms: germinating; germinated; germinates

To germinate is to grow or to develop. When a tiny seedling cracks through a seed casing and sprouts, it has germinated. The term is used for other things too, like when an idea germinates into a film or book.

Sometimes you want things to germinate, like the heirloom tomato seeds in your backyard garden. Sometimes what germinates is not desirable — like how joblessness, economic problems, and generations of anti-Semitism provided a fertile ground for Nazism to germinate in pre-war Germany. The word's roots are in botany, but it has grown, or dare we say germinated, to be used for any time something grows and develops.

Definitions of germinate

1. verb

   produce buds, branches, or germinate
   synonyms: bourgeon, burgeon forth, pullulate, shoot, sprout, spud

   type of:

   grow

   increase in size by natural process
2. verb

   cause to grow or sprout
   “the plentiful rain germinated my plants”

   synonyms:

   bourgeon, burgeon forth, pullulate, shoot, sprout, spud

   produce buds, branches, or germinate

   type of:

   grow

   cause to grow or develop
3. verb

   work out
   synonyms: develop, evolve

   develop

   make something new, such as a product or a mental or artistic creation

   type of:

   create by mental act, create mentally

   create mentally and abstractly rather than with one's hands