seminal

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“
She also referenced what she called a seminal study done at Sears a few years ago that found that engaged customer-service employees drive increased profits.

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Definitions (19)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Of, relating to, containing, or conveying semen or seed.
  2. adjective Of, relating to, or having the power to originate; creative.
  3. adjective Highly influential in an original way; constituting or providing a basis for further development: a seminal idea in the creation of a new theory.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (12)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • In classical and modern Koranic exegeses by seminal, authoritative Islamic theologians —  Jihad Watch
  • He was still doing major ( "seminal," in this case) work by 1966. —  RealClimate
  • Scudorama, the dance maker recalls a seminal time in America's history-as well as his own.
  • By titling his seminal work The Wealth of Nations, Smith "asserted the paramount standard of the national welfare, and not the wealth of men, as the one by which all economic activity was to be judged," Eccles said. —  The Daily Iowan - Online Edition
  • Her work has sometimes been famously seminal, as in her classic feminist novel, —  Home | The New York Observer
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French, from Latin sēminālis, from sēmen, sēmin-, seed; see semen.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Old French seminal, French séminal = Provencal Spanish Portuguese seminal = Italian seminale, from Latin seminalis, relating to seed, from semen (semin-), seed: see semen.
 

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/ˈsɛmɪnəl/
by American Heritage

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