Pollen

//ˈpɒlən// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A fine, granular substance produced in flowers. uncountable, usually
  2. 2
    the fine spores that contain male gametes and that are borne by an anther in a flowering plant wordnet
  3. 3
    Pollen grains (microspores) produced in the anthers of flowering plants. uncountable, usually

    "In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual."

  4. 4
    Fine powder in general, fine flour. obsolete, uncountable, usually

    "and ther was good wyne of Gascoyne,[…]as well of pollen, as of other vitailes"

Verb
  1. 1
    To cover with, or as if with, pollen. poetic, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
androcyteantheridiumantherozoidfecundatefertilizefructify

Example

More examples

"Just how well can masks block the, even smaller than pollen, yellow sand dust? I think it much more of a nuisance than pollen."

Etymology

From Latin pollen (“fine flour”). Used by Linnaeus in the 18th century to describe the spores produced in the anthers of flowers.

Related phrases

I'm allergic to pollenpollen analysispollen basketpollen countpollen counterpollen grainpollen granulepollen mother cellpollen parentpollen sacpollen sporepollen tube

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