sporulate
English
Etymology 1
From sporule + -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Verb
sporulate (third-person singular simple present sporulates, present participle sporulating, simple past and past participle sporulated)
- (biology, intransitive) To produce spores.
- 2021, Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness, Canongate Books (2022), pages 95–96:
- She was also their science teacher and had taught them about slime molds in biology class, about how the singular organisms came together to form a multicellular body in order to sporulate and reproduce, before breaking apart again.
- (transitive) To convert into spores.
- 1885, Edwin Ray Lankester, Encyclopædia Britannica, volume vol. XIX. 854/1:
- A part of the protoplasm is not sporulated but forms a capillitium.
Derived terms
Related terms
Etymology 2
From sporul(e) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix).
Adjective
sporulate (not comparable)
- (botany) That produces spores (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- Antonym: asporulate