Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or having the nature of a germ cell.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or occurring in the earliest stage of development.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The seventh month of the French revolutionary calendar. It commenced (in 1794) March 21st and ended April 19th.
  • Pertaining to or constituting a germ; of the nature of a germ or of germination; germinative: as, germinal; vesicles; germinal ideas or principles.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Pertaining or belonging to a germ.
  • adjective (Biol.) Of or pertaining to the germ, or germ cells, as distinguished from the somatic cells.
  • adjective (Biol.) the two layers of cells, the ectoblast and entoblast, which form respectively the outer covering and inner wall of the gastrula. A third layer of cells, the mesoblast, which is formed later and lies between these two, is sometimes included.
  • adjective (Biol.) Same as Blastoderm.
  • adjective (Biol.) the nucleolus of the ovum.
  • adjective (Biol.) , the nucleus of the ovum of animals.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining or belonging to a germ.
  • adjective figuratively Of or pertaining to something very small, as small as a germ; pertaining to the essence of something.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective containing seeds of later development
  • noun seventh month of the Revolutionary calendar (March and April); the month of buds

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Latin germen, germin-, sprout, bud; see genə- in Indo-European roots.]

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  • Germinal

    Of, relating to, or occurring in the earliest stage of development

    November 30, 2021