How to use germinate in a sentence

16 example sentences · verb

Germinate means of a seed, to begin to grow, to sprout roots and leaves. Example: “If you oversoak lentils, they may begin to germinate.”

Examples of germinate by meaning

verbOf a seed, to begin to grow, to sprout roots and leaves.

Their tiny seeds don't have any on-board nutrients (like beans and apples) and will not germinate until they are infected by a symbiotic fungus which supplies them with food.2014 April 5, “Quite interesting: A quietly intriguing column from the brains behind QI, the BBC quiz show. This week; QI orchids you not”...
The stickiness means that, after eating the berries, birds often regurgitate the seeds and then wipe their bills on twigs – leading to the seeds' getting glued to the tree, where they can germinate and begin the cycle anew.2014 December 23, Olivia Judson, “The hemiparasite season [print version: Under the hemiparasite, International New York Times, 24–25...

verbTo cause to grow; to produce.

These were business hours, and a feeling of loneliness crept over him, perhaps germinated by his sight of the illustrated papers, and accentuated by an attempted perusal of them.1913, Robert Barr, chapter 5, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad

More sentences with germinate

If you oversoak lentils, they may begin to germinate.From the entry oversoak
Most pteridophytes are homosporous, producing one type of spore that germinates to produce a potentially bisexual gametophyte.1989, Douglas E. Soltis, Pamela S. Soltis, “Chapter 12: Polyploidy, Breeding Systems, and Genetic Differentiation in Homosporous…. From the entry pteridophyte
In many homosporous plants, the spore germinates and grows into a gametophyte completely outside the spore wall.1984, Scagel, Robert Francis, chapter 10, in Plants, an evolutionary survey, page 286. From the entry exosporic
In Taiwan three species of wireworms cause damage to germinating setts.1960 January 1, R. W. Mungomery, “The Use of Insecticides to Control Subterranean Insects in Taiwan”, in The Cane Growers' Quarterly…. From the entry Touliu
In germinating grains the aperture membrane is pushed open like a lid.1952, Gunnar Erdtman, Pollen Morphology and Plant Taxonomy, →ISBN, page 466. From the entry aperture membrane
The project went nowhere, but it did plant seeds of copperheadism that germinated a couple of years later.1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published 2003, page 247. From the entry Copperheadism
Sixty-two percent of seeds in the buried silicles germinated by the end of the first spring, and only 3% remained nongerminated and viable.2015 October 30, “Seed Germination Ecology of the Cold Desert Annual Isatis violascens (Brassicaceae): Two Levels of Physiological…. From the entry nongerminated
The brachiaria is made to germinate and emerge later than the maize, either by delaying its planting or by planting it deeper.2011, Advances in Agronomy, volume 91, page 88. From the entry brachiaria
He fits, though uncomfortably perhaps, in these germinating years as a member of the yeastful mix of gifted artists which gravitated to Provincetown.1994, Josephine Couch Del Deo, Ross Moffett, Figures in a landscape, page 228. From the entry yeastful
Except for those who directly benefit from the system, life becomes a goalless existence, in which the worst human aberrations start germinating.1991, Indu Prakash Singh, Commonism, the manifesto of a new social order. From the entry goalless
Sowed in the spring, salad seeds like radish, lettuce and spring onion will germinate so quickly that you'll be harvesting a crop in a month or two.2021, Rose Ray, Caro Langton, Into Green: Everyday Ways to Find and Lose Yourself in Nature, page 62. From the entry edible
Recently germinated seeds are often even more nutritious from the point of view of humans because the stored chemicals are often transformed into more edible and palatable substances.2006, Ernest Small, Culinary Herbs, page 17. From the entry edible
It doesn't grow in shade; therefore, the dense canopy of an intensively planted garden bed helps inhibit growth of any spotted spurge that germinates later in the season.2001 January 1, Jill Jesiolowski Cebenko, Deborah L. Martin, “Spotted Spurge (Euphorbia maculata)”, in Insect, Disease & Weed I.D. Guide…. From the entry spotted spurge

Meaning of germinate

verb Of a seed, to begin to grow, to sprout roots and leaves.
verb To cause to grow; to produce.

Full definition of germinate

Questions about germinate in a sentence

How do you use germinate in a sentence?: Germinate is used as a verb. For example: “If you oversoak lentils, they may begin to germinate.”
What is a short sentence with germinate?: “If you oversoak lentils, they may begin to germinate.”
What does germinate mean?: Germinate means of a seed, to begin to grow, to sprout roots and leaves.

Adapted from Wiktionary: germinate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use germinate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/germinate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.