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Added 5 October 2026

bud

/bʌd/ symbol

In Latin: germen, gemma Wiktionary

symbol Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about bud at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

ISO 639-3 language code for Ntcham.

noun

A newly sprouted leaf or blossom that has not yet unfolded.
After a long, cold winter, the trees finally began to produce buds.
Something that has begun to develop.
breast buds
A small rounded body in the process of splitting from an organism, which may grow into a genetically identical new organism.
In this slide, you can see a yeast cell forming buds.

verb

To form buds.
The trees are finally starting to bud.
To reproduce by splitting off buds.
Yeast reproduces by budding.
To begin to grow, or to issue from a stock in the manner of a bud, as a horn.
Seeds of dissent were budding among the recruits.

noun

Buddy, friend.
I like to hang out with my buds on Saturday night.
Synonym of guy, term of address for a man or person.
Brother.

Origin

From Middle English budde, bodde (“bud, seed pod”), from Old English *budde, from Proto-West Germanic *buʀdā, from Proto-Germanic *buzdǭ (compare archaic German Butte (“rosehip”), Swedish dialect bodd (“head”)), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- (“to swell”). Compare also German Low German Butte, Butt (“bud”), Dutch bot (“bud”), regional German Butz, Butzen (“seed pod; apple core”), German Low German Haagbutt ("rosehip"; Haagbudden (“rosehips”, plural)).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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