Germinal
//ˈdʒɜː(ɹ)mɪnəl// adj, name
adj, name ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 seventh month of the Revolutionary calendar (March and April); the month of buds wordnet
Adjective
- 1 Relating to spring
- 2 Pertaining, similar, or belonging to a germ.
- 3 Relating to a plant ovary.
- 4 Serving as a point of origin; formative. figuratively
"My upbringing was the germinal idea behind the opera."
- 5 Highly influential; seminal. figuratively
"This case was germinal to development of the theory of joint participation."
Adjective
- 1 containing seeds of later development wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 The seventh month of the French Republican Calendar, starting on the date of the vernal equinox (March 21 or 22) and ending on April 19 or 20. historical
Example
More examples"My upbringing was the germinal idea behind the opera."
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle French germe, from Latin germen (“bud, seed, embryo”). Doublet of germen. From earlier *genmen via dissimilation, from Proto-Italic *genamen, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁mn̥ (“offspring”, “seed”), from the root *ǵenh₁- (“to beget”, “to give birth”). Compare with genimen.
Etymology 2
Borrowed from French germinal, from Latin germen (“sprout, bud”) + -al.
Related phrases
More for "germinal"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.