Added 8 October 2026
plant
/plɑːnt/ noun
In Latin: planta Wiktionary
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about plant at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
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An organism that is not an animal, especially an organism capable of photosynthesis, and 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.
- An organism of the kingdom Plantae, and 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.
- Now specifically, a multicellular eukaryote that includes chloroplasts in its cells, which have a cell wall.
verb
- To place (a seed or plant) in soil or other substrate in order that it may live and grow.
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To furnish or supply with plants.
to plant a garden, an orchard, or a forest
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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!
Origin
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”).
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)