# plant
## English

Picture dictionary :
plant :
* treetree
* coniferconifer
* bushbush
* flowerflower

### Etymology

From Middle English plante, from Old English plante (“young tree or shrub, herb newly planted”), from Proto-West Germanic *plantu, from Latin planta (“sprout, shoot, cutting”). Broader sense of "any vegetable life, vegetation generally" is from Old French plante. Doublet of clan (borrowed through Celtic languages) and planta (directly from Latin).
The verb is from Middle English planten, from Old English plantian (“to plant”), from Latin plantāre, later influenced by Old French planter. Compare also Dutch planten (“to plant”), German pflanzen (“to plant”), Swedish plantera (“to plant”), Icelandic planta (“to plant”).
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “What is the etymology of the factory (noun 5) and machinery (noun 11) senses?”)

### Pronunciation

* (General Australian, US, Canada, Northern England) enPR: plănt, IPA: /plænt/, [pʰl̥ænt]
* (New Zealand, Received Pronunciation) enPR: plänt, IPA: /plɑːnt/, [pʰl̥ɑːnt]
* (æ-tensing) IPA: [pʰl̥eənt]
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (UK):(file)
* Hyphenation: plant
* Rhymes: -ɑːnt, -ænt

### Noun

plant (plural plants)
* (botany) An organism that is not an animal, especially an organism capable of photosynthesis. Typically a small or herbaceous organism of this kind, rather than a tree.
    The garden had a couple of trees, and a cluster of colourful plants around the border.
** 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 217: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. Many genes with reproductive roles also have antibacterial and immune functions, which indicate that the threat of microbial attack on the sperm or egg may be a major influence on rapid evolution during reproduction.
* (botany) An organism of the kingdom Plantae. Now specifically, a living organism of the Embryophyta (land plants) or of the Chlorophyta (green algae), a eukaryote that includes double-membraned chloroplasts in its cells containing chlorophyll a and b, or any organism closely related to such an organism.
* (ecology) Now specifically, a multicellular eukaryote that includes chloroplasts in its cells, which have a cell wall.
* (proscribed as biologically inaccurate) Any creature that grows on soil or similar surfaces, including plants and fungi. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
* A factory or other industrial or institutional building or facility.
** 2025 6 Jan, Dominic Coyle, “Drug giant MSD buys Wuxi’s Irish vaccines plant in €500m deal”, in The Irish Times‎, archived from the original on 3 February 2025:The US group does have another vaccine plant in Ireland – in Carlow – but it is understood the Dundalk site is the only live virus vaccine facility in MSD’s Irish network.
* An object placed surreptitiously in order to cause suspicion to fall upon a person.
    That gun’s not mine! It’s a plant! I’ve never seen it before!
* (slang, obsolete) A stash or cache of hidden goods.
* Anyone assigned to behave as a member of the public during a covert operation (as in a police investigation).
* A person, placed amongst an audience, whose role is to cause confusion, laughter etc.
* (snooker) A play in which the cue ball knocks one (usually red) ball onto another, in order to pot the second; a set.
** 2008 April 28, Phil Yates, The Times:O’Sullivan risked a plant that went badly astray, splitting the reds.
* (uncountable) Machinery, such as the kind used in earthmoving or construction.
** 2007 January 26, “HSS buys Laois tool hire business”, in RTÉ News‎, archived from the original on 3 February 2025:The company's product range includes tools, construction plant, diggers, dumpers and rollers.
* (obsolete) A young tree; a sapling; hence, a stick or staff.
** 1694, “The Third Book of Virgil's Georgicks”, in John Dryden, transl., The Annual Miscellany, for the Year 1694, 2nd edition, London: Jacob Tonson, published 1708, page 185:Take, Shepherd, take a Plant of ſtubborn Oak; / And labour him with many a ſturdy ſtroke: / Or with hard Stones, demoliſh from afar / His haughty Creſt, the feat of all the War.
* (obsolete) The sole of the foot.
** 1611, Ben Jonson, “Oberon, the Faery Prince”, in The Works of Ben Jonson, volume V, London: D. Midwinter et al., published 1756, page 384:Knotty legs, and plants of clay, / Seek for eaſe, or love delay.
* (dated, slang) A plan; a swindle; a trick.
** 1850 March 30, Charles Dickens, “A Detective Police Party”, in Household Words, volume 1, page 413:It wasn’t a bad plant that of mine, on Fikey, the man accused of forging the Sou’ Westeru Railway debentures—it was only t’ other day—because the reason why? I’ll tell you.
* An oyster which has been bedded, in distinction from one of natural growth.
* (US, dialect) A young oyster suitable for transplanting.
* (control theory) The combination of process and actuator.

#### Usage notes

The scientific definition of what organisms should be considered plants changed dramatically during the 20th century. Bacteria, algae, and fungi are no longer considered plants by those who study them. Many textbooks do not reflect the most current thinking on classification.

#### Hypernyms

* (biology): Archaeplastida

#### Hyponyms

* baseball plant
* bottling plant
* coaling plant
* desalination plant
* houseplant
* pot plant
* power plant
* sewage plant

#### Derived terms

* air plant
* Albany pitcher plant
* artillery plant
* assembly plant
* asthma-plant
* Australian pitcher plant
* balloon plant
* basket plant
* bedding plant
* button plant
* California pitcher plant
* canoe plant
* caricature plant
* cast-iron plant
* castor oil plant
* century plant
* chameleon plant
* chandelier plant
* chemical plant
* chenille plant
* coal plant
* combined cycle power plant
* compass plant
* cone plant
* container plant
* control-plant
* cooling plant
* coral plant
* corpse plant
* cup-and-saucer plant
* cup plant
* curry plant
* cushion plant
* dinosaur plant
* dove plant
* egg-plant
* elbow plant
* face-plant
* fiber plant
* fire plant
* flowering plant
* food plant
* fried-egg plant
* friendship plant
* gas plant
* ghost plant
* gnome plant
* goldfish plant
* Good Friday plant
* gout plant
* grapple plant
* hand plant
* hedgehog plant
* honey plant
* honey-plant
* host plant
* houseplant
* house plant
* humble plant
* hypocrite plant
* ice plant
* ice-plant
* icicle plant
* indoor plant
* industry plant
* jade plant
* jelly plant
* joypowder plant
* jumping plant louse
* larval food plant
* lipstick plant
* Mexican hat plant
* Mickey Mouse plant
* money plant
* monument plant
* mosquito plant
* mother plant
* non-vascular plant
* nosebleed plant
* nuclear power plant
* nuke plant
* obedient plant
* oyster plant
* packing plant
* peaker plant
* pebble plant
* physical plant
* phys plant
* pickle plant
* pie plant
* piggyback plant
* pilot plant
* pitcher plant
* plant-animal
* plantar
* plant a seed
* plant-based
* plant bug
* plant-cane
* plant community
* plant eater
* plant-eater
* plant-eating
* planter
* plant food
* plant hormone
* plant-house
* plant kingdom
* plantlet
* plant-louse
* plant louse
* plantly
* plant milk
* plant one's feet
* plant parent
* plant point
* plant pot
* plant room
* plant science
* plant sit
* plant-sit
* plant teacher
* poison dart plant
* poker plant
* polka-dot plant
* pot-plant
* potted plant
* prayer plant
* purple velvet plant
* radiator plant
* rainbow plant
* regasification plant
* resurrection plant
* rice-paper plant
* roast-beef plant
* rock plant
* root plant
* rouge-plant
* rubber plant
* sailor plant
* scorpion plant
* sea-plant
* seed plant
* semaphore plant
* sensitive plant
* sewage plant
* shame plant
* shoo-fly plant
* shrimp plant
* snake plant
* snow plant
* soap plant
* spider plant
* Swiss cheese plant
* tarnished plant bug
* tea oil plant
* tea plant
* telegraph plant
* thunder-plant
* toothache plant
* toot plant
* trigger plant
* unicorn plant
* vascular plant
* vinegar plant
* water plant
* waterwheel plant
* wax plant
* West Australian pitcher plant
* Western Australian pitcher plant
* wind power plant
* World's Fair plant
* zebra plant
* ZZ plant

#### Descendants

* → Punjabi: ਪਲਾਂਟ (palāṇṭ)

#### Translations
### Verb

plant (third-person singular simple present plants, present participle planting, simple past and past participle planted)
* (ambitransitive) To place (a seed or plant) in soil or other substrate in order that it may live and grow.
* (transitive) To furnish or supply with plants.
    to plant a garden, an orchard, or a forest
** 1848, Jacob Abbott, “Story I. Labour Lost.—Elky.”, in Rollo at Work: Or, The Way for a Boy to Learn to be Industrious‎, London: James S. Hodson, page 5:His father had given him a little square bed in a corner of the garden, which he had planted with corn two days before.
** 1991 November 26, Don Trivette, “How Does Your Garden Grow? With Silver Bells And Mouse Button Clicks”, in PC Mag‎, volume 10, number 20, Ziff Davis, Inc., →ISSN, page 604:With your mouse, you plant a garden by selecting plants from a database of 450 of the most common flowers, shrubs, and trees.
* (transitive) To place (an object, or sometimes a person), often with the implication of intending deceit.
    That gun’s not mine! It was planted there by the real murderer!
** 1999, Terry Prone, The Skywriter, page 182:Not only that, I thought, but cynics would now theorise that the interview piece was a PR exercise, a planted story designed as damage-limitation in the event that some probing journalist revealed all about the love nest.
* (transitive) To place or set something firmly or with conviction.
    to plant cannon against a fort; to plant a flag; to plant one’s feet on solid ground
    Plant your feet firmly and give the rope a good tug.
** 2011 January 15, Sam Sheringham, “Chelsea 2 - 0 Blackburn Rovers”, in BBC‎:First Anelka curled a shot wide from just outside the box, then Lampard planted a header over the bar from Bosingwa's cross.
* (transitive) To place in the ground.
** 1780, William Cowper, “Light Shining out of Darkneſs”, in Twenty-ſix Letters on Religious Subjects […] To which are added Hymns […] ‎, 4th edition, page 252:God moves in a myſterious way, / His wonders to perform; / He plants his footſteps in the ſea, / And rides upon the ſtorm.
** 2007, Richard Laymon, Savage, page 118:Sarah, she kissed each of her grandparents on the forehead. They were planted in a graveyard behind the church.
* (transitive) To engender; to generate; to set the germ of.
** c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:It engenders choler, planteth anger.
* (transitive) To furnish with a fixed and organized population; to settle; to establish.
    to plant a colony
** 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Plantations”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:planting of countries like planting of woods
* (transitive) To introduce and establish the principles or seeds of.
    to plant Christianity among the heathen
* (transitive) To set up; to install; to instate.
** c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii]:We will plant some other in the throne.

#### Derived terms

* faceplant, handplant
* plant foot
* plant out

#### Related terms

* plantation

#### Translations
### See also

* plant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Further reading

* “plant”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* plant in Britannica Dictionary
* plant in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
* plant in Sentence collocations by Cambridge Dictionary
* plant in Ozdic collocation dictionary
* plant in WordReference English Collocations

## Danish
### Verb

plant
* imperative of plante

## Dutch
### Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch plante, from Latin planta. Doublet of clan.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /plɑnt/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: plant
* Rhymes: -ɑnt

#### Noun

plant f (plural planten, diminutive plantje n)
* plant, any member of the kingdom Plantae
    Hyponyms: boom, gewas, gras, heester, mos, struik, vaatplant
* (potentially offensive) cabbage, vegetable (person with severe brain damage)

##### Derived terms

* aardbeienplant
* bananenplant
* hangplant
* kamerplant
* kasplant
* kiemplant
* klimplant
* landplant
* plantaardig
* plantenbak
* plantencel
* planteneter
* plantengemeenschap
* plantengoed
* plantenmateriaal
* plantenrest
* plantenrijk
* plantensoort
* plantensterol
* plantenvoeding
* plantenwortel
* Pothoofdplant
* potplant
* sierplant
* slingerplant
* sporenplant
* theeplant
* tomatenplant
* tuinplant
* vaatplant
* vetplant
* waardplant
* waterplant
* wietplant
* woekerplant
* zaadplant

##### Descendants

* Negerhollands: plan, plant

### Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /plɑnt/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: plant

#### Verb

plant
* inflection of planten:
** first/second/third-person singular present indicative
** imperative

### Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Belgium) /plɑnt/, (Netherlands) /plɛnt/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: plant

#### Verb

plant
* inflection of plannen:
** second/third-person singular present indicative
** (archaic) plural imperative

### References

* ↑ Philippa, Marlies, Debrabandere, Frans, Quak, Arend, Schoonheim, Tanneke, van der Sijs, Nicoline (2003–2009) Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands (in Dutch), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press

## French
### Etymology

Deverbal from planter. Doublet of plan (“plan, map”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /plɑ̃/
* Audio:(file)
* Homophones: plan, plans, plants

### Noun

plant m (plural plants)
* seedling
* young plant or plantation

#### Derived terms

* laisser en plant

### Further reading

* “plant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## German
### Verb

plant
* inflection of planen:
** third-person singular present
** second-person plural present
** plural imperative

## Haitian Creole
### Etymology

From French plante (“plant”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /plãt/

### Noun

plant
* plant (organism)

## Mauritian Creole
### Etymology

From French plante.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [plɑ̃t]

### Noun

plant
* a plant

### Verb

plant
* Medial form of plante; to plant.

## Middle English
### Noun

plant
* Alternative form of planete (“planet”)

## Norwegian Bokmål
### Verb

plant
* imperative of plante

## Norwegian Nynorsk
### Etymology 1
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /plɑnt/

#### Verb

plant
* imperative of planta

### Etymology 2
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /plɑːnt/

#### Adjective

plant
* neuter singular of plan

## Old Welsh
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin planta.

### Noun

plant pl
* children
    (Can we add an example for this sense?)

#### Descendants

* Welsh: plant
* → Old Irish: cland, clann
** Middle Irish: clann
*** Irish: clann
*** Manx: cloan
*** Scottish Gaelic: clann
**** → English: clan (see there for further descendants)

## Swedish
### Adjective

plant
* indefinite neuter singular of plan

## Welsh
### Etymology

From Old Welsh plant, from Latin planta.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /plant/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ant

### Noun

plant m (collective, singulative plentyn)
* children, young people
* children (of parents), offspring (sometimes of animals), progeny, issue; descendants
** 1620, Revised version of William Morgan’s translation of the Bible, Joel 1:3:
    Mynegwch hyn i’ch plant, a’ch plant i’w plant hwythau, a’u plant hwythau i genhedlaeth arall.Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. (KJV)
* followers, disciples, servants
* people regarded as product of a particular place, time, event, circumstances, etc.

#### Derived terms

* ffon y plant (“common cattail”)

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

### Further reading

* R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “plant”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

## West Frisian
### Etymology

Ultimately from Latin planta. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

### Noun

plant c (plural planten, diminutive plantsje)
* plant

#### Further reading

* “plant (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011