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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

spawn.

To produce or deposit (eggs) in water.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/spɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/spɔn/General-American/spɑn/cot-caught-merger
  1. To produce or deposit (eggs) in water.

    transitive
    A frog spawns thousands of tadpoles every year.
  2. To generate, bring into being, especially nonmammalian beings in very large numbers.

    transitive
  3. To bring forth in general.

    transitive
    The web server spawns a new process to handle each client's request.
  4. To induce (aquatic organisms) to spawn.

    transitive
  5. To plant with fungal spawn.

    transitive
  6. To deposit (numerous) eggs in water.

    intransitive
  7. To reproduce, especially in large numbers.

    intransitive
  8. To appear, or cause (something or someone) to appear, spontaneously in a game world at a particular place and time.

    ergative
    We put down torches to stop creepers from spawning.
  9. To appear, or cause (something or someone) to appear, unexpectedly and seemingly out of nowhere.

    Internet · ergative · figuratively
    Where did he come from? Bro just spawned in.
  10. Of a person or non-egglaying animal: to be born.

    Internet · figuratively · humorous · intransitive
    That kid just spawned and looks like he's already done with life.
Where this word comes from

Recorded since 1413; from Middle English spawnen, from Anglo-Norman espaundre, from Old French espandre, from Latin expandere (“stretch out; spread out”, verb). Doublet of expand. Compare also Middle English spalden, spolden, spawden (“to cut open (a fish)”).

noun/spɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/spɔn/General-American/spɑn/cot-caught-merger
  1. The numerous eggs of an aquatic organism.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Mushroom mycelium prepared for (aided) propagation.

    countable · uncountable
  3. Any germ or seed, even a figurative source.

    countable · uncountable
    This dreadful idea is the spawn of a large business conglomerate.
  4. Any germ or seed, even a figurative source. Children; offspring.

    countable · derogatory · often · uncountable
  5. The buds or branches produced from underground stems.

    countable · uncountable
  6. Synonym of spawn point.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English spawne, from the verb (see above).

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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.