sprout

/spraʊt/

/spraʊt/

Other forms: sprouts; sprouting; sprouted

A sprout is a small growth on a plant — a little new bud. Other things can sprout too: kids are constantly sprouting (growing).

The key thing to think of when you're trying to remember the meaning of sprout is growth — as a noun, a sprout is a new growth of a plant, and as a verb, to sprout means to grow. Sprouting mainly applies to height and to the young, whether you're talking about plants, people, or things. An older person who gains fifty pounds is growing but not sprouting.

Definitions of sprout

1. verb

   produce buds, branches, or germinate
   “the potatoes sprouted”

   synonyms: bourgeon, burgeon forth, germinate, pullulate, shoot, spud

   germinate

   cause to grow or sprout

   type of:

   grow

   increase in size by natural process
2. verb

   put forth and grow sprouts or shoots
   “the plant sprouted early this year”

   synonyms: stock

   type of:

   acquire, develop, get, grow, produce

   come to have or undergo a change of (physical features and attributes)
3. noun

   a newly grown bud (especially from a germinating seed)
   types:

   bean sprout

   any of various sprouted beans: especially mung beans or lentils or edible soybeans

   alfalfa sprout

   sprouted alfalfa seeds

   type of:

   green, greens, leafy vegetable

   any of various leafy plants or their leaves and stems eaten as vegetables
4. noun

   any new growth of a plant such as a new branch or a bud
   types:

   shoot

   a new branch

   bud

   a swelling on a plant stem consisting of overlapping immature leaves or petals

   sucker

   a shoot arising from a plant's roots

   tiller

   a shoot that sprouts from the base of a grass

   leaf bud

   a bud from which leaves (but not flowers) develop

   flower bud

   a bud from which only a flower or flowers develop

   mixed bud

   a bud yielding both leaves and flowers

   type of:

   plant organ

   a functional and structural unit of a plant or fungus