DictionaryAI

plant

AUSPLANT/plænt/UKPLAHNT/plɑːnt/

Pluralplants

Verbplants, planting, planted

20 meanings of plant

Practice

  1. 1
    green growing thingnouncountable
    A living thing that grows in soil or water, usually makes its own food from sunlight, and cannot move about, such as a tree, flower, or grass.

    Each plant in the greenhouse was labeled with its species name.

    Most plants produce their own food from sunlight in their leaves.

    UsageIn everyday talk plants often means smaller things like flowers and houseplants, as opposed to trees.

  2. 2
    factorynouncountable
    A factory, or other industrial or institutional building or facility, where production or operations take place.

    The automotive plant runs three shifts a day.

    Workers at the bottling plant went on strike over pay.

    UsageUsually after its product or purpose: a bottling plant, a power plant, a steel plant.

    Similarfactory, facility, works, mill

    Note

    With the definite article it becomes the local workplace everyone knows: my dad worked at the plant for 27 years. It counts like any building, one plant or three, which sets it apart from the machinery sense.

  3. 3
    put in soilverbtransitive or intransitive
    To put seeds or young plants in the ground to grow, or to fill an area with plants.

    Farmers plant wheat in early fall.

    He planted an oak sapling near the pond.

    UsageYou plant seeds or young trees, or plant a bed with roses.

    Similarsow, seed

    Oppositeuproot

    Note

    What goes into the soil can be a seed or something already growing, such as a sapling, and the synonym seed fits only the first case.

  4. 4
    place secretlyverbtransitive
    To place an object or person somewhere secretly, often in order to deceive or mislead others.

    An informant planted a microphone inside the office.

    Rivals attempted to plant false rumors in the press.

    Similarhide, conceal, place, insert, slip

    Note

    A planted story is one fed to the press on purpose, such as a public-relations piece designed for damage limitation, and a planted gun is evidence put where it will mislead. Deceit is usually implied rather than stated, so "planted there by the real murderer" accuses without any further word. Its noun is the incriminating object.

  5. 5
    equipment (industry)noununcountable
    Machinery, equipment, and other supplies of the kind used in heavy industry, light industry, earthmoving, or construction.

    The construction firm leases plant rather than buying it outright.

    Operators must be trained before using heavy plant.

    UsageNo a or plural here: heavy plant, a lot of plant; a plant usually means a factory.

    Similarmachinery, equipment

    Note

    A refrigeration plant is usually a facility or a whole installation, while refrigeration plant with no article is the machinery itself. Capital equipment comes close in meaning.

  6. 6
    drive into groundverbtransitive
    To put or set something firmly in place, especially into the ground.

    The crew planted markers across the field.

    Engineers plant steel supports into the bedrock for stability.

    Similarset, fix, embed

    Note

    The literal setting-down stretches in both directions. Richard Laymon's Savage (1993) says a girl's grandparents were planted in a graveyard, a blunt, informal way of saying buried. William Cowper's "Light Shining out of Darkness" (1774) goes toward the sublime, with a God who plants his footsteps in the sea. Between them lie the ordinary uses: posts, markers and supports driven into the ground.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

  7. 7
    put in mindverbtransitive
    To introduce and establish the first principles or seeds of something, such as an idea or belief.

    The speech planted doubt in the minds of the voters.

    Early lessons plant values that shape a whole life.

    UsageUsually plant an idea, a doubt or a seed in someone's mind.

    Similarsow, instill, implant, seed, introduce

    Note

    The sense can work inside one person's mind or across a whole community. To plant Christianity among the heathen is to establish a faith where it was not held before. That phrasing, with among, has an old missionary ring.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The example “plant Christianity among the heathen” means to introduce and establish the faith. en.wiktionary.org
  8. 8
    including funginounnonstandardcountable
    Any organism that grows on soil or similar surfaces, including both plants and fungi.

    The children pointed at the toadstools beside the path and asked what kind of plant they were.

    Foragers gathered any useful plant from the woods, mushrooms and herbs together.

    Note

    Biologists reject this usage as inaccurate, since it groups living things by where they grow rather than by what they are. It persists in practical writing, such as warnings that wild mushrooms are plants that are hard to identify and that some are poisonous.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Including fungi among plants is biologically inaccurate. kew.org
    • Some wild mushrooms are poisonous. nps.gov

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of plant apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

The noun comes from Middle English and Old English plante (a young tree, shrub, or newly planted herb), from Proto-West Germanic *plantu, from Latin planta ("sprout, shoot, cutting"); the broader sense of vegetation generally came through Old French plante. The verb comes from Old English plantian, from Latin plantāre, later influenced by Old French planter. It is a doublet of clan, and the factory and machinery senses developed from the Latin idea of something that produces.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

  • The noun descends through Middle English and Old English plante and Proto-West Germanic *plantu from Latin planta, with the stated meanings. en.wiktionary.org
  • The general vegetation sense came through Old French plante. en.wiktionary.org
  • The verb derives from Old English plantian and Latin plantāre, with later Old French influence. en.wiktionary.org
  • Plant and clan are doublets. en.wiktionary.org
  • The factory and machinery senses developed from the Latin idea of something that produces. en.wiktionary.org