plant
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: plănt
ipa: /plænt/
ipa: [pʰl̥ænt]
enpr: plänt
ipa: /plɑːnt/
ipa: [pʰl̥ɑːnt]
ipa: [pʰl̥eənt]
rhymes: -ɑːnt
rhymes: -ænt
Forms: form: plants
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”).
The factory and machinery senses comes from the Latin sense of "any vegetable production that serves to propagate the species," which refers to something that produces.
Senses: examples: text: The garden had a couple of trees, and a cluster of colourful plants around the border.
text: 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.
ref: 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 217:
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: 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.
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: 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.
topics: biology
ecology
natural-sciences
glosses: Now specifically, a multicellular eukaryote that includes chloroplasts in its cells, which have a cell wall.
examples: text: Some plants, such as mushrooms found in the wild, are difficult to identify. Some plants are poisonous, and an inexperienced individual may make mistakes in identification of wild plants, with tragic results.
ref: 2007 November 19, Ping-chung Leung, Harry H S Fong, Alternative Treatment For Cancer, World Scientific, →ISBN, page 205:
glosses: Any creature that grows on soil or similar surfaces, including plants and fungi.
raw_tags: as biologically inaccurate
examples: text: The company has production plants in three countries.
text: My dad worked at the plant for 27 years.
text: 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.
ref: 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 03 Feb 2025:
glosses: A factory or other industrial or institutional building or facility.
examples: text: Near-synonym: capital equipment
text: industrial plant
text: refrigeration plant
text: A massive amount of plant has been trucked in and installed over the past two years, and production is expected to begin soon.
hypernyms: equipment#Noun
capital#Noun
glosses: Machinery and other supplies and equipment, such as the kind used in heavy industry, light industry, earthmoving, or construction.
examples: text: That gun’s not mine! It’s a plant! I’ve never seen it before!
glosses: An object placed surreptitiously in order to cause suspicion to fall upon a person.
glosses: A stash or cache of hidden goods.
glosses: Anyone assigned to behave as a member of the public during a covert operation (as in a police investigation).
glosses: A person, placed amongst an audience, whose role is to cause confusion, laughter etc.
examples: text: O’Sullivan risked a plant that went badly astray, splitting the reds.
ref: 2008 April 28, Phil Yates, The Times:
text: The company's product range includes tools, construction plant, diggers, dumpers and rollers.
ref: 2007 January 26, “HSS buys Laois tool hire business”, in RTÉ News, archived from the original on 03 Feb 2025:
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
snooker
sports
glosses: A play in which the cue ball knocks one (usually red) ball onto another, in order to pot the second; a set.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
glosses: A young tree; a sapling; hence, a stick or staff.
examples: text: Knotty legs, and plants of clay, / Seek for eaſe, or love delay.
ref: 1611, Ben Jonson, “Oberon, the Faery Prince”, in The Works of Ben Jonson, volume V, London: D. Midwinter et al., published 1756, page 384:
glosses: The sole of the foot.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1850 March 30, Charles Dickens, “A Detective Police Party”, in Household Words, volume 1, page 413:
glosses: A plan; a swindle; a trick.
glosses: An oyster which has been bedded, in distinction from one of natural growth.
glosses: A young oyster suitable for transplanting.
qualifier: control theory
glosses: A system, such as a motor, whose behaviour is being regulated or controlled by a control system.
glosses: A position in the street to sell from; a pitch.
Synonyms: word: plant
Hypernyms: topics: biology
natural-sciences
word: Archaeplastida
word: organism
Hyponyms: word: baseball plant
word: bottling plant
word: coaling plant
word: desalination plant
word: houseplant
word: pot plant
word: power plant
word: sewage plant
word: tree
word: bush
word: shrub
word: brush
word: flower
word: conifer
word: angiosperm
word: gymnosperm
Derived terms: air plant
Albany pitcher plant
antiplant
ant-plant
artillery plant
ashplant
assembly plant
assplant
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
dancing plant
deplant
dinosaur plant
displant
dove plant
eggplant
egg-plant
elbow plant
eternity plant
explant
face-plant
fiber plant
firecracker plant
fire plant
flowering plant
food plant
fried-egg plant
friendship plant
gas plant
ghost plant
ginger beer 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
interplant
intraplant
jade plant
jelly plant
joypowder plant
jumping plant louse
larval food plant
leadplant
lipstick plant
macroplant
megaplant
Mexican hat plant
Mickey Mouse plant
microplant
mimicry plant
misplant
money plant
monument plant
mosquito plant
mother plant
multiplant
nonplant
non-vascular plant
nosebleed plant
nuclear power plant
nuke plant
obedient plant
outplant
oyster plant
packing plant
palmoplantar
peaker plant
pebble plant
physical plant
phys plant
pickle plant
pie plant
pieplant
piggyback plant
pilot plant
pitcher plant
planimal
plantage
plantal
plant-animal
plantar
plant a seed
plant-based
plant bug
plant-cane
plant community
plantcutter
plant eater
plant-eater
plant-eating
planter
plant food
plantgating
planthood
planthopper
plant hormone
plant-house
planthropology
plantibody
plantivorous
plantkin
plantkind
plant kingdom
plantless
plantlet
plantlife
plantlike
plantling
plant louse
plant-louse
plantly
plant milk
plant morphology
plantness
plantocracy
plant one's feet
plant parent
plant point
plant pot
plant room
plant science
plantscraper
plant sit
plant-sit
plantsman
plantsperson
plantstand
plantstuff
plantswoman
plant teacher
plantwide
plantwise
poison dart plant
poker plant
polka-dot plant
pot-plant
potted plant
prayer plant
preplant
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
shoebutton plant
shoo-fly plant
shrimp plant
snake plant
snow plant
soap plant
spider plant
superplant
Swiss cheese plant
switch-plant
tarnished plant bug
tea oil plant
tea plant
telegraph plant
thunder-plant
toothache plant
toot plant
trigger plant
triggerplant
unicorn plant
vascular plant
velcro plant
vinegar plant
vitroplant
wallplant
washplant
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