Cross-pollination

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Fertilization by the transfer of pollen from an anther of one plant to a stigma of another. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    stimulating influence among diverse elements wordnet
  3. 3
    Inspiration, stimulation, or influence between diverse elements. countable, figuratively, uncountable
  4. 4
    fertilization by transfer of pollen from the anthers of one flower to the stigma of another wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
conjugationimpregnationinsemination

Example

More examples

"Cross-pollination from birds, bees and other insects is of value to more than just coffee. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says two-thirds of the world's crops require it. But Mr. Ricketts and his colleagues point out that recent declines in wild and managed bee populations throughout the world have aroused concern, prompting the United Nations to create the International Pollinators Initiative. This is a program to coordinate scientific investigation on ways to conserve animal pollinators."

Etymology

From cross- + pollination.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.