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View synonyms for pollen

pollen

[ pol-uhn ]

noun

  1. the fertilizing element of flowering plants, consisting of fine, powdery, yellowish grains or spores, sometimes in masses.


verb (used with object)

pollen

1

/ pəˈlɪnɪk; ˈpɒlən /

noun

  1. a fine powdery substance produced by the anthers of seed-bearing plants, consisting of numerous fine grains containing the male gametes
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


Pollen

2

/ ˈpɒlən /

noun

  1. PollenDaniel18131896MNew ZealandIrishPOLITICS: statesmanPOLITICS: prime minister Daniel. 1813–96, New Zealand statesman, born in Ireland: prime minister of New Zealand (1876)
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

pollen

/ pŏlən /

  1. Powdery grains that contain the male reproductive cells of most plants. In gymnosperms, pollen is produced by male cones or conelike structures. In angiosperms, pollen is produced by the anthers at the end of stamens in flowers. Each pollen grain contains a generative cell, which divides into two nuclei (one of which fertilizes the egg), and a tube cell, which grows into a pollen tube to conduct the generative cell or the nuclei into the ovule. The pollen grain is the male gametophyte generation of seed-bearing plants. In gymnosperms, each pollen grain also contains two sterile cells (called prothallial cells), thought to be remnants of the vegetative tissue of the male gametophyte.


pollen

  1. The male sex cells in plants. In flowering plants, pollen is produced in thin filaments in the flower called stamens . ( See fertilization and pollination .)


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Notes

When pollen is carried into the air by the wind, it frequently causes allergic reactions ( see allergy ) in humans.
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Derived Forms

  • pollinic, adjective
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Other Words From

  • pollen·less adjective
  • pollen·like adjective
  • pol·lin·ic [p, uh, -, lin, -ik], pol·lini·cal adjective
  • un·pollened adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of pollen1

1515–25; < New Latin, special use of Latin: fine flour, mill dust
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Word History and Origins

Origin of pollen1

C16: from Latin: powder; compare Greek palē pollen
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Example Sentences

They are essential to ecosystems, and we use them for everything from seeds to oil to pollen to decoration.

The bees even demand, “Give us your pollen.”

"This suggests that what we are seeing is an effect of weather on the flowering plants that bees depend on for pollen and nectar, and this in turn affects the bees."

Scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School have identified how the first domino falls after a person encounters an allergen, such as peanuts, shellfish, pollen or dust mites.

Plants provide energy and nutrition, mostly in the form of nectar and pollen, while the visiting pollinators distribute the plants’ genes.

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polleepollen analysis