sprout
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Any new growth of a plant such as a new branch or a bud.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sprowtIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈspɹaʊt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Any new growth of a plant such as a new branch or a bud
A new growth of or on a plant, whether from seed or other parts.
A germinated seed, an incipient young plant.
An edible variety of such, grown and intended as food; examples include bean, alfalfa, kale, and others.
A bean sprout.
figurative
A child.
verb
transitive
To cause to grow from a seed.
figurativeintransitive
To emerge haphazardly from a surface.
figurativeintransitive
To emerge or appear haphazardly.
intransitive
To emerge from the ground as sprouts.
Put forth and grow sprouts or shoots
“The plant sprouted early this year.”
transitive
To deprive of sprouts.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any new growth of a plant such as a new branch or a bud
Used this way, sprout is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use sprout
- “The plant sprouted early this year.”verb
- “The potatoes sprouted.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The process whereby seeds or spores sprout and begin to grow.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Sprouted alfalfa seeds.
Any of various sprouted beans: especially mung beans or lentils or edible soybeans.
Plant grown for its stout stalks of edible small green heads resembling diminutive cabbages.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.