Seminal

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: sem=i=nal

CIDE DICTIONARY

Seminal, a. [L. seminalis, fr. semen, seminis, seed, akin to serere to sow: cf. F. seminal. See Sow to scatter seed.].

•  Pertaining to, containing, or consisting of, seed or semen; as, the seminal fluid.  [1913 Webster]
•  Contained in seed.  [1913 Webster]
•  Holding the first place in a series of developed results or consequents; serving as a source, or first principle; giving rise to related ideas or results; germinal; radical; primary; original; as, seminal principles of generation; seminal virtue; a seminal discovery.  [1913 Webster]

  "The idea of God is, beyond all question or comparison, the one great seminal principle."  [1913 Webster]

Seminal leaf (Bot.), a seed leaf, or cotyleden. -- Seminal receptacle. (Zoöl.) Same as Spermatheca.

Seminal, n. 

 A seed.  Sir T. Browne.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Seminal, adj.
1 of or relating to seed, semen, or reproduction.
2 germinal.
3 rudimentary, undeveloped.
4 (of ideas etc.) providing the basis for future development.

Idiom

seminal fluid semen.

Derivative

seminally adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF seminal or L seminalis (as SEMEN)

THESAURUS

Seminal

aboriginal, abundant, basal, basic, benchmark, blooming, bountiful, bursting, bursting out, central, cervical, clitoral, conceptive, conceptual, copious, creative, crucial, elemental, elementary, embryonic, esemplastic, excretory, exuberant, fattening, fecund, fecundative, fertile, fertilizing, flourishing, formative, fructiferous, fructificative, fruitful, fundamental, gametic, gamic, generative, generous, genetic, genital, germinal, ideational, ideative, imaginative, important, in embryo, in ovo, incipient, influential, ingenious, innovative, inspired, inventive, lachrymal, lachrymose, lacrimatory, lactational, lacteal, lacteous, landmark, life-giving, lush, luxuriant, multiparous, new, notional, original, originative, ovarian, penial, penile, phallic, plenteous, plentiful, potential, pregnant, primal, primary, prime, primeval, primitive, primordial, pristine, procreant, procreative, productive, proliferous, prolific, propagative, protogenic, radical, reproductive, rheumy, rich, richening, rudimentary, salivant, salivary, salivous, scrotal, secretional, secretive, secretory, serous, sexual, shaping, sialagogic, spermatic, spermatozoal, spermatozoan, spermatozoic, spermic, sporal, sporogenous, sporoid, sporous, superabundant, swarming, teeming, telling, testicular, thriving, uberous, undeveloped, unprecedented, uterine, vaginal, visioned, vulval, vulvar, watering, watery

ROGET THESAURUS

Seminal

Cause

N cause, origin, source, principle, element, occasioner, prime mover, primum mobile, vera causa, author, mainspring, agent, leaven, groundwork, foundation, spring, fountain, well, font, fountainhead, spring head, wellhead, fons et origo, genesis, descent, remote cause, influence, pivot, hinge, turning point, lever, crux, fulcrum, key, proximate cause, causa causans, straw that breaks the camel's back, ground, reason, reason why, why and wherefore, rationale, occasion, derivation, final cause, les dessous des cartes, undercurrents, rudiment, egg, germ, embryo, bud, root, radix radical, etymon, nucleus, seed, stem, stock, stirps, trunk, tap-root, gemmule, radicle, semen, sperm, nest, cradle, nursery, womb, nidus, birthplace, hotbed, causality, causation, origination, production, caused, causal, original, primary, primitive, primordial, aboriginal, protogenal, radical, embryonic, embryotic, in embryo, in ovo, seminal, germinal, at the bottom of, connate, having a common origin, because, behind the scenes, causa latet vis est notissima, felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.