Sprout

//spɹaʊt// name, noun, verb

name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A new growth of or on a plant, whether from seed or other parts.
  2. 2
    a newly grown bud (especially from a germinating seed) wordnet
  3. 3
    A germinated seed, an incipient young plant.

    "Near-synonyms: seedling, chit"

  4. 4
    any new growth of a plant such as a new branch or a bud wordnet
  5. 5
    A germinated seed, an incipient young plant.; An edible variety of such, grown and intended as food; examples include bean, alfalfa, kale, and others.
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    A germinated seed, an incipient young plant.; An edible variety of such, grown and intended as food; examples include bean, alfalfa, kale, and others.; A bean sprout.
  2. 7
    A child. figuratively

    "Oh my, how your sprouts have grown!"

  3. 8
    A Brussels sprout.

    "In our family we only eat sprouts once a year, at Christmas."

Verb
  1. 1
    To grow from seed; to germinate. intransitive

    "The crocuses should be sprouting after 2 months, provided they're well tended."

  2. 2
    put forth and grow sprouts or shoots wordnet
  3. 3
    To cause to grow from a seed. transitive

    "I sprouted beans and radishes and put them in my salad."

  4. 4
    produce buds, branches, or germinate wordnet
  5. 5
    To deprive of sprouts. transitive

    "to sprout potatoes"

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    To emerge from the ground as sprouts. intransitive
  2. 7
    To emerge haphazardly from a surface. figuratively, intransitive

    "Whiskers sprouted from the old man's chin."

  3. 8
    To emerge or appear haphazardly. figuratively, intransitive

    "A lot of coffee shops have sprouted up in this neighbourhood since the block of flats was put up."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
shootaccrue fromackerspyreadventurerarisearise from

Example

More examples

"Professor Sprout acclimated the plant to a new environment."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English sproute, either from Middle English sprouten (“to sprout”) (see below); or from Middle Dutch sprute or Middle Low German sprûte (“sprout”), all related to Proto-West Germanic *spreutan. Doublet of spruit.

Etymology 2

From Middle English sprouten, spruten, from Old English sprūtan, from Proto-West Germanic *spreutan, from Proto-Germanic *spreutaną.

Etymology 3

* As a Dutch surname, from spruit (“sprout, shoot”) * As an English and Scottish surname, spelling variant of Sprott

Related phrases

coconut sproutsprout upbean sproutbrussel sproutbrussels sprout

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