Bean vs. Seed — What's the Difference?

A bean is the seed of one of several genera of the flowering plant family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes throughout the world.

A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering. The formation of the seed is part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm plants.

Any of various twining herbs of the genus Phaseolus in the pea family, native to the Americas, having leaves with three leaflets and variously colored flowers, and widely cultivated for their edible pods and seeds.

A mature plant ovule containing an embryo.

A seed or pod of any of these plants.

A small dry fruit, spore, or other propagative plant part.

Any of several related plants or their seeds or pods, such as the adzuki bean, broad bean, or soybean.

Seeds considered as a group

Any of various other plants or their seeds or fruits, especially those suggestive of beans such as the coffee bean or vanilla bean.

The seed-bearing stage of a plant

(Slang) A person's head.

A larval shellfish or a hatchling fish

Beans(Slang) A small amount

An egg or cocoon of certain insects

Chiefly British A fellow; a chap.

A tiny bubble in a piece of glass.

To hit (another) on the head with a thrown object, especially a pitched baseball.

(Medicine) A form of a radioactive isotope that is used to localize and concentrate the amount of radiation administered to a body site, such as a tumor.

Any plant of several genera of the taxonomic family Fabaceae that produces large edible seeds or edible seedpods.

A source or beginning; a germ

The large edible seed of such a plant (for example, a broad bean, navy bean, or garbanzo bean).

A small amount of material used to start a chemical reaction.

The edible seedpod of such a plant.

A small crystal used to start a crystallization process.

(by extension) The bean-like seed of certain other plants, such a a vanilla bean or (especially) a coffee bean.

A cell that disperses, especially a cancer cell that spreads from a primary tumor to another location in the body.

(by extension) An object resembling a pea or bean in shape, often made from plastic or styrofoam and used in large numbers as packing material or as stuffing for beanbags and similar items.

Offspring; progeny.

(slang) The head or brain.

Family stock; ancestry.

(slang) The clitoris.

Sperm; semen.

A person.

(Sports) A player who has been seeded for a tournament, often at a given rank

A guinea coin.

To plant seeds in (land, for example); sow.

Money.

To plant (a crop, for example) as seeds in soil.

(software) JavaBean

To remove the seeds from (fruit).

To hit deliberately with a projectile, especially in the head.

To furnish with something that grows or stimulates growth or development

A name given to the seed of certain leguminous herbs, chiefly of the genera Faba, Phaseolus, and Dolichos; also, to the herbs.

To disperse to, as cancer cells

The popular name of other vegetable seeds or fruits, more or less resembling true beans.

To disperse or transfer (cancer cells, for example)

Any of various edible seeds of plants of the family Leguminosae

(Meteorology) To sprinkle (a cloud) with particles, as of silver iodide, in order to disperse it or to produce precipitation.

Any of various seeds or fruits suggestive of beans

To arrange (the drawing for positions in a tournament) so that the more skilled contestants meet in the later rounds.

Any of various leguminous plants grown for their edible seeds and pods

To rank (a contestant) in this way.

Informal terms for a human head

To help (a business, for example) in its early development.

Hit on the head, esp. with a pitched baseball

To sow seed.

To pass into the seed-bearing stage.

(Medicine) To disperse and often multiply, as cancer cells.

Set aside for planting a new crop

Intended to help in early stages

A fertilized and ripened ovule, containing an embryonic plant.

(countable) Any small seed-like fruit.

Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs.

An amount of seeds that cannot be readily counted.

(countable) A fragment of coral.

(uncountable) Semen.

A precursor.

(countable) The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.

(sports) The initial position of a competitor or team in a tournament. (seed position)

The competitor or team occupying a given seed. (seed position)

(cryptography) The initialization state of a pseudorandom number generator or similar system. (seed number)

Commercial message in a creative format placed on relevant sites on the Internet. (seed idea or seed message)

Offspring, descendants, progeny.

Race; generation; birth.

A small bubble formed in imperfectly fused glass.

(transitive) To plant or sow an area with seeds.

(transitive) To cover thinly with something scattered; to ornament with seedlike decorations.

(transitive) To start; to provide, assign or determine the initial resources for, position of, state of.

To allocate a seeding to a competitor.

To leave (files) available for others to download through peer-to-peer file sharing protocols (e.g. BitTorrent).

(intransitive) To be qualified to compete, especially in a quarter-final, semi-final, or final.

(intransitive) To produce seed.

(intransitive) To grow to maturity.

To ejaculate inside the penetratee during intercourse, especially in the rectum.

(dialectal) see

A ripened ovule, consisting of an embryo with one or more integuments, or coverings; as, an apple seed; a currant seed. By germination it produces a new plant.

The generative fluid of the male; semen; sperm; - not used in the plural.

That from which anything springs; first principle; original; source; as, the seeds of virtue or vice.

The principle of production.

Progeny; offspring; children; descendants; as, the seed of Abraham; the seed of David.

Race; generation; birth.

To sow seed.

To shed the seed.

To grow to maturity, and to produce seed.

To sprinkle with seed; to plant seeds in; to sow; as, to seed a field.

To cover thinly with something scattered; to ornament with seedlike decorations.

A small hard fruit

A mature fertilized plant ovule consisting of an embryo and its food source and having a protective coat or testa

One of the outstanding players in a tournament

Anything that provides inspiration for later work

The thick white fluid containing spermatozoa that is ejaculated by the male genital tract

Go to seed; shed seeds;

Help (an enterprise) in its early stages of development by providing seed money

Bear seeds

Place (seeds) in or on the ground for future growth;

Distribute (players or teams) so that outstanding teams or players will not meet in the early rounds

Sprinkle with silver iodide particles to disperse and cause rain;

Inoculate with microorganisms

Remove the seeds from;