sperm

UK/spɜːm//spɜɹm/

sperm noun: the reproductive cell or gamete of the male; a spermatozoon.

Noun

sperm (countable and uncountable, plural sperm or sperms)

(countable) The reproductive cell or gamete of the male; a spermatozoon.
- In the Fall into the division of labor, Levi-Strauss sees the great hunters trading women to create the exogamous bonds of one hunting band with another. The egg is, but the sperm does. The tiny sperm may be furious in its activity, but its highway to the egg is paved by the alkaline trail set down...1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 80
- Seeing the two little moving cells – the result of her egg and Luke's sperm – was incredible, and two very long weeks later the clinic confirmed I was pregnant.2012 April 13, Sarah Whitehouse, The Guardian
Synonyms:

spermatozoon, sperm cell
(slang, uncountable) Semen; the generative substance of male animals.
- Other Nations there are, that never have use of fire; Others, whose sperme is of a blacke colour.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
- Deer sperm was in used among the Romans as an aphrodisiac.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 227
Synonyms:

cum, semen
Sperm oil; whale oil from a sperm whale; spermaceti.
- Holding his candle so that he could read the coffin plates, and so holding it that the sperm dropped in white patches which congealed as they touched the metal, he made assurance of Lucy’s coffin.1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula

Verb

sperm (third-person singular simple present sperms, present participle sperming, simple past and past participle spermed)

(intransitive, slang, vulgar) To ejaculate.
(slang, transitive, vulgar) To ejaculate on or into.

sperm meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sperm in Hindi

cell: शुक्राणु śukrāṇu
semen (fluid): शुक्र śukra, वीर्य vīrya

sperm in Tamil

semen (fluid): விந்து vintu

sperm in Marathi

शुक्राणू, शुक्राणु, शुक्राणूंचे

sperm in Urdu

semen (fluid): منی manī, نطفہ nutfa

More languagesFewer languages

sperm in Bengali: শুক্রাণু śukranu, বীর্য birjo
sperm in Telugu: స్పెర్మ్
sperm in Malayalam: രേതസ് rētasŭ
sperm in Kannada: ವೀರ್ಯ, ರೇತಸ್ಸು, ಶುಕ್ರ, ಶುಕ್ಲ
sperm in Punjabi: ਸ਼ੁਕ੍ਰਾਣੂ, ਸ਼ੁਕਰਾਣੂ, ਸ਼ੁਕਰਾਣੂਆਂ
sperm in Gujarati: વીર્ય vīrya
sperm in Odia: ଶୁକ୍ରାଣୁ
sperm in Sanskrit: शुक्र śukra, रेतस् retas
sperm in Nepali: शुक्राणु, शुक्राणुहरू, शुक्राणुलाई
sperm in Pashto: مني maní
sperm in Tagalog: punlay, tamod
sperm in Arabic: نُطْفَة nuṭfa, حَيَوَان مَنَوِيّ ḥayawān manawiyy, مَنْي many
sperm in Malay: sperma, benih, benih jantan
sperm in Indonesian: sperma
sperm in Persian: اسپرماتوزئید espermâtozo'id, نطفه notfa, منی moni
sperm in Thai: สเปิร์ม sà-bpəəm, ตัวอสุจิ, อสุจิ à-sù-jì
sperm in Vietnamese: tinh trùng, tinh binh, tinh dịch
sperm in Myanmar: သုက်ပိုး sukpui:, သုက်ကောင် sukkaung

Examples of sperm in a sentence

The tiny sperm may be furious in its activity, but its highway to the egg is paved by the alkaline trail set down by the Great Mother.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London...
“Female may accept the sperms of male that can catapult but deplete the sperms of male that can be easily caught by her,” he said.2022 April 26, Megan Marples, “Tiny spider catapults to safety after mating to avoid sexual cannibalism”, in CNN:
However, in some men precum will contain sperm so adequate protection should be used to prevent pregnancy.2024 June 11, Dr. Steve Chapman, “Is swallowing semen good for you?”, in Better2Know:

All 40 example sentences with sperm

Synonyms of sperm

All synonyms of sperm

Forms of sperm

Noun
plural	sperm
plural	sperms
Verb
third-person singular present	sperms
present participle	sperming
past participle	spermed
past	spermed

Plural of sperm: sperm or sperms

Origin of sperm

From Middle English sperme, from Latin sperma, from Ancient Greek σπέρμα (spérma, “seed, semen”). Compare also Old French esperme, sparme.

Phrases with sperm

7 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sperm

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sperm

What does sperm mean?: Sperm means the reproductive cell or gamete of the male; a spermatozoon.
What is sperm in Hindi?: Sperm in Hindi is शुक्राणु (śukrāṇu), शुक्र (śukra), वीर्य (vīrya). See Sperm meaning in Hindi.
How do you use sperm in a sentence?: The tiny sperm may be furious in its activity, but its highway to the egg is paved by the alkaline trail set down by the Great Mother.
What part of speech is sperm?: Sperm can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce sperm?: Sperm is pronounced /spɜɹm/ (US).
What is the plural of sperm?: The plural of sperm is sperm.

Words near sperm in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sperm (page history and authors); sperm (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sperm (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); രേതസ് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); sperm (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sperm (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sperm (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sperm (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-sperm2.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sperm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sperm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.