pollinate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
- interpollinate verb
- overpollinate verb (used with object)
- pollination noun
- pollinator noun
Etymology
Origin of pollinate
1870–75; < New Latin pollin- (stem of pollen ) pollen + -ate 1
Explanation
To pollinate is to move the pollen from one plant to another. When a bee, for example, pollinates a flower, it helps the plant reproduce. You know what they say about the birds and the bees... In some cases, plants pollinate with the help of the wind, while often it takes an insect or bird moving the grainy substance called pollen between plants. This process involves pollen being transferred to the female parts of a plant, where fertilization takes place. Pollinate comes from the Latin word pollination, and its root, pollen, or "fine flour."
Vocabulary lists containing pollinate
Life Science: Plants
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Buzzwords for National Honey Bee Day
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Life Science IV
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A study from Kobe University suggests this unusual interaction reshapes how scientists understand the balance between plants and the insects that pollinate them.
From Science Daily • Mar. 12, 2026
While some bee-keepers aim only to produce honey, many others rent out their hives to farmers who need the insects to pollinate their crops.
From BBC • May 31, 2025
Those don't sound like organisms that anybody actively wants to lure, but these bugs are helping to pollinate the plant.
From Salon • May 27, 2025
Insects pollinate plants, provide critical protein for all kinds of baby birds and nourish the soil.
From New York Times • Jun. 3, 2024
They were mostly self-pollinating: that is, the crop varieties could pollinate themselves and pass on their own desirable genes unchanged, instead of having to hybridize with other varieties less useful to humans.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
