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plant definition

Overview

This page has 55 definitions of plant with English translations in 9 languages. Plant is a noun, verb and adjective. Examples of how to use plant in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .

See also: Plant

English plant definition

tree
tree
conifer
conifer
bush
bush
flower
flower

Etymology

From Middle English plante, from Old English plante (“young tree or shrub, herb newly planted”), from Latin planta (“sprout, shoot, cutting”). Broader sense of "any vegetable life, vegetation generally" is from Old French plante. Doublet of clan, borrowed through Celtic languages.

The verb is from Middle English planten, from Old English plantian (“to plant”), from Latin plantāre, later influenced by Old French planter. Compare also Dutch planten (“to plant”), German pflanzen (“to plant”), Swedish plantera (“to plant”), Icelandic planta (“to plant”).

Pronunciation

Noun

plant (plural plants)

  1. (botany) An organism that is not an animal, especially an organism capable of photosynthesis. Typically a small or herbaceous organism of this kind, rather than a tree.
    The garden had a couple of trees, and a cluster of colourful plants around the border.
    • 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 217:
      In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual. Many genes with reproductive roles also have antibacterial and immune functions, which indicate that the threat of microbial attack on the sperm or egg may be a major influence on rapid evolution during reproduction.
  2. (botany) An organism of the kingdom Plantae; now specifically, a living organism of the Embryophyta (land plants) or of the Chlorophyta (green algae), a eukaryote that includes double-membraned chloroplasts in its cells containing chlorophyll a and b, or any organism closely related to such an organism.
  3. (ecology) Now specifically, a multicellular eukaryote that includes chloroplasts in its cells, which have a cell wall.
  4. (proscribed as biologically inaccurate) Any creature that grows on soil or similar surfaces, including plants and fungi.
  6. A factory or other industrial or institutional building or facility.
  7. An object placed surreptitiously in order to cause suspicion to fall upon a person.
    That gun's not mine! It's a plant! I've never seen it before!
  8. Anyone assigned to behave as a member of the public during a covert operation (as in a police investigation).
  9. A person, placed amongst an audience, whose role is to cause confusion, laughter etc.
  10. (snooker) A play in which the cue ball knocks one (usually red) ball onto another, in order to pot the second; a set.
    • 2008 April 28, Phil Yates, The Times:
      O’Sullivan risked a plant that went badly astray, splitting the reds.
  11. (uncountable) Machinery, such as the kind used in earthmoving or construction.
  12. (obsolete) A young tree; a sapling; hence, a stick or staff.
    • 1694, “The Third Book of Virgil's Georgicks”, in John Dryden, transl., The Annual Miscellany, for the Year 1694, 2nd edition, London: Jacob Tonson, published 1708, page 185:
      Take, Shepherd, take a Plant of ſtubborn Oak; / And labour him with many a ſturdy ſtroke: / Or with hard Stones, demoliſh from afar / His haughty Creſt, the feat of all the War.
  13. (obsolete) The sole of the foot.
  14. (dated, slang) A plan; a swindle; a trick.
    • 1850 March 30, Charles Dickens, “A Detective Police Party”, in Household Words, volume 1, page 413:
      It wasn’t a bad plant that of mine, on Fikey, the man accused of forging the Sou’ Westeru Railway debentures—it was only t’ other day—because the reason why? I’ll tell you.
  15. An oyster which has been bedded, in distinction from one of natural growth.
  16. (US, dialect) A young oyster suitable for transplanting.
  17. (control theory) The combination of process and actuator.

Usage notes

The scientific definition of what organisms should be considered plants changed dramatically during the 20th century. Bacteria, algae, and fungi are no longer considered plants by those who study them. Many textbooks do not reflect the most current thinking on classification.

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

Translations

See plant/translations § Noun.

Verb

plant (third-person singular simple present plants, present participle planting, simple past and past participle planted)

A man planting Pelargonium graveolens in South Africa (1)
  1. (transitive, intransitive) To place (a seed or plant) in soil or other substrate in order that it may live and grow.
  2. (transitive) To furnish or supply with plants.
    to plant a garden, an orchard, or a forest
    • 1848, Jacob Abbott, “Story I. Labour Lost.—Elky.”, in Rollo at Work: Or, The Way for a Boy to Learn to be Industrious‎[1], London: James S. Hodson, page 5:
      His father had given him a little square bed in a corner of the garden, which he had planted with corn two days before.
    • 1991 November 26, Don Trivette, “How Does Your Garden Grow? With Silver Bells And Mouse Button Clicks”, in PC Mag‎[2], volume 10, number 20, Ziff Davis, Inc., →ISSN, page 604:
      With your mouse, you plant a garden by selecting plants from a database of 450 of the most common flowers, shrubs, and trees.
  3. (transitive) To place (an object, or sometimes a person), often with the implication of intending deceit.
    That gun's not mine! It was planted there by the real murderer!
    • 1999, Terry Prone, The Skywriter, page 182:
      Not only that, I thought, but cynics would now theorise that the interview piece was a PR exercise, a planted story designed as damage-limitation in the event that some probing journalist revealed all about the love nest.
  4. (transitive) To place or set something firmly or with conviction.
    Plant your feet firmly and give the rope a good tug.
    to plant cannon against a fort; to plant a flag; to plant one's feet on solid ground
    • 2011 January 15, Sam Sheringham, “Chelsea 2 - 0 Blackburn Rovers”, in BBC‎[3]:
      First Anelka curled a shot wide from just outside the box, then Lampard planted a header over the bar from Bosingwa's cross.
  5. (transitive) To place in the ground.
    • 1780, William Cowper, “Light Shining out of Darkneſs”, in Twenty-ſix Letters on Religious Subjects […] To which are added Hymns […] ‎[4], 4th edition, page 252:
      God moves in a myſterious way, / His wonders to perform; / He plants his footſteps in the ſea, / And rides upon the ſtorm.
    • 2007, Richard Laymon, Savage, page 118:
      Sarah, she kissed each of her grandparents on the forehead. They were planted in a graveyard behind the church.
  6. (transitive) To engender; to generate; to set the germ of.
  7. (transitive) To furnish with a fixed and organized population; to settle; to establish.
    to plant a colony
  8. (transitive) To introduce and establish the principles or seeds of.
    to plant Christianity among the heathen
  9. (transitive) To set up; to install; to instate.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See plant/translations § Verb.

See also

Further reading

Danish plant definition

Verb

plant

  1. imperative of plante

Dutch plant definition

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch plante, from Latin planta.[1] Doublet of clan.

Pronunciation

Noun

plant f (plural planten, diminutive plantje n)

  1. plant, any member of the kingdom Plantae
  2. (potentially offensive) cabbage, vegetable (person with severe brain damage)
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Descendants

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

Verb

plant

  1. inflection of planten:
    1. first/second/third-person singular present indicative
    2. imperative

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (Belgium) /plɑnt/, (Netherlands) /plɛnt/
  • Audio(file)
  • Hyphenation: plant

Verb

plant

  1. inflection of plannen:
    1. second/third-person singular present indicative
    2. (archaic) plural imperative

References

  1. ^ Philippa, Marlies; Debrabandere, Frans; Quak, Arend; Schoonheim, Tanneke; van der Sijs, Nicoline (2003–2009) Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands (in Dutch), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press

French plant definition

Etymology

Deverbal from planter. Doublet of plan (“plan, map”).

Pronunciation

Noun

plant m (plural plants)

  1. seedling
  2. young plant or plantation

Derived terms

Further reading

German plant definition

Verb

plant

  1. inflection of planen:
    1. third-person singular present
    2. second-person plural present
    3. plural imperative

Haitian Creole plant definition

Etymology

From French plante (“plant”).

Noun

plant

  1. plant (organism)

Mauritian Creole plant definition

Etymology

From French plante.

Pronunciation

Noun

plant

  1. a plant

Verb

plant

  1. Medial form of plante; to plant.

Middle English plant definition

Noun

plant

  1. Alternative form of planete (“planet”)

Norwegian Bokmål plant definition

Verb

plant

  1. imperative of plante

Norwegian Nynorsk plant definition

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Verb

plant

  1. imperative of planta

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Adjective

plant

  1. neuter singular of plan

Old Welsh plant definition

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin planta.

Noun

plant pl

  1. children
    (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Descendants

Swedish plant definition

Adjective

plant

  1. indefinite neuter singular of plan

Welsh plant definition

FWOTD – 3 July 2017

Etymology

From Old Welsh plant, from Latin planta.

Pronunciation

Noun

plant m pl (singulative plentyn)

  1. children, young people
  2. children (of parents), offspring (sometimes of animals), progeny, issue; descendants
    • 1620, Revised version of William Morgan’s translation of the Bible, Joel 1:3:
      Mynegwch hyn i’ch plant, a’ch plant i’w plant hwythau, a’u plant hwythau i genhedlaeth arall.
      Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. (KJV)
  3. followers, disciples, servants
  4. people regarded as product of a particular place, time, event, circumstances, etc.

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
plant blant mhlant phlant
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “plant”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

West Frisian plant definition

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin planta. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

plant c (plural planten, diminutive plantsje)

  1. plant

Further reading

  • “plant (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
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