seeding

Pluralseedings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of seed.

   Heavy rain delayed the seeding of the winter wheat.

   Crews were seeding the bare hillside to prevent erosion.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of the verb seed: sowing a hillside, scattering ornament across a surface, setting the starting state of something, keeping files available for peer-to-peer download. As a gerund it often takes an of-phrase (the seeding of the winter wheat). In sport it shades into the tournament-ranking noun, since to seed a competitor is to give them a seeding.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The arrangement of competitors' positions within a tournament, set so that placement reflects their relative ranking.

   The committee announced the seeding a week before the championship began.

   A high seeding gave her an easier path through the early rounds.

   Similarranking, placing

   Note

   A sports and games term that counts: a tournament has its seedings, and each player holds a seeding. The verb works alongside it, so players are seeded and organizers seed them. Because seedings rank entrants before play begins, they invite second-guessing. In 1979 The New York Times questioned a computer's Wimbledon seeding after clay-court experts looked like weekend hackers on grass. The aim is to spread the strongest entrants across the draw.

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