seed
/siːd/noun, verb
seed is spelled S-E-E-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,814th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “cede vs seed” about 10 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, seed means “Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of seed is seeds.
How many letters and syllables are in seed?
| Letters | 4: S-E-E-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 23 times per million words; the 3,814th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is seed?
Seed appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,814th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce seed?
- US /siːd/
Seed has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-seed.wav, En-us-seed.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with seed
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: cede (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with seed?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as seed from its last stressed vowel (/id/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: dees, dese.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of seed
- seeds plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- seeding participle, present
- seeded participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does seed mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs.
- 2
A fertilized and ripened ovule, containing an embryonic plant.
- 3
Any small seed-like fruit.
If you plant a seed in the spring, you may have a pleasant surprise in the autumn.
- 4
An amount of seeds that cannot be readily counted.
The entire field was covered with geese eating the freshly sown seed.
- 5
A fragment of coral.
- 6
Semen.
A man must use his seed to start and raise a family.
- 7
A precursor.
the seed of an idea
- 8
The initial position of a competitor or team in a tournament. (seed position)
The team with the best regular season record receives the top seed in the conference tournament.
verb
- 1
To plant or sow an area with seeds.
I seeded my lawn with bluegrass.
- 2
To shed seeds (refers to plants)
These poppies have not seeded themselves yet.
- 3
To cover thinly with something scattered; to ornament with seedlike decorations.
- 4
To start; to provide, assign or determine the initial resources for, position of, state of.
A venture capitalist seeds young companies.
- 5
To allocate a seeding to a competitor.
- 6
To leave (files) available for others to download through peer-to-peer file sharing protocols (e.g. BitTorrent).
- 7
To be qualified to compete, especially in a quarter-final, semi-final, or final.
The tennis player seeded into the quarters.
- 8
To scatter small particles within (a cloud or airmass) in order to trigger the formation of rain.
A number of clouds were seeded to help provide rain to a drought-stricken area.
- 9
simple past and past participle of see
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Seed in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | semence, graine , sperme , tête de série , postérité , semer |
| German | Samen, Saat, Samenkorn , säen, aussäen , Aussaat |
| Portuguese | semente , sêmen, sémen , semear , embrião |
| Spanish | semilla, simiente , semen , sembrar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does seed come from?
] From Middle English seed, sede, side, from Old English sēd, sǣd (“seed, that which is sown”), from Proto-West Germanic *sād, from Proto-Germanic *sēdą, from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow, throw”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).