noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any plant such as a conifer whose seeds are not enclosed in an ovary.

   "Like cycads — their gymnosperm relatives — and ferns, the ginkgo produces motile sperm."

2. 2
   plants of the class Gymnospermae having seeds not enclosed in an ovary wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

amphibianannualbiennialcuttingdicotyledonevergreen

Example

More examples

"Like cycads — their gymnosperm relatives — and ferns, the ginkgo produces motile sperm."

Etymology

from Ancient Greek γυμνός (gumnós, “naked”) + σπέρμα (spérma, “seed”). By surface analysis, gymno- + sperm.

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