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seminal.

Of or relating to seed or semen.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈsɛmɪnəl/

  1. Of or relating to seed or semen.

  2. Creative or having the power to originate.

  3. Highly influential, especially in some original way, and providing a basis for future development or research.

    "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" was a seminal work in the modern philosophy of science.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *séh₁mn̥ Proto-Italic *sēmn̥ Latin sēmen Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin sēminālis Old French seminalbor. Middle English seminal English seminal From Middle English seminal, semynal, from Old French seminal, seminale, from Latin sēminālis, ultimately from oblique stem of Latin sēmen, sēminis (“seed”) + -al.

noun/ˈsɛmɪnəl/

  1. A seed.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *séh₁mn̥ Proto-Italic *sēmn̥ Latin sēmen Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin sēminālis Old French seminalbor. Middle English seminal English seminal From Middle English seminal, semynal, from Old French seminal, seminale, from Latin sēminālis, ultimately from oblique stem of Latin sēmen, sēminis (“seed”) + -al.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.