Seed vs. Pollen — What's the Difference?

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.

Pollen is a powdery substance consisting of pollen grains which are male microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophytes during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants, or from the male cone to the female cone of coniferous plants.

A mature plant ovule containing an embryo.

The fine powderlike material whose individual grains contain the male reproductive cells of seed plants. Pollen is produced in the anther in angiosperms and in the male cone in gymnosperms.

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

A fine, granular substance produced in flowers.

Seeds considered as a group

(botany) Pollen grains (microspores) produced in the anthers of flowering plants.

The seed-bearing stage of a plant

(obsolete) Fine powder in general, fine flour.

A larval shellfish or a hatchling fish

To cover with, or as if with, pollen.

An egg or cocoon of certain insects

Fine bran or flour.

A tiny bubble in a piece of glass.

The fecundating dustlike cells of the anthers of flowers. See Flower, and Illust. of Filament.

(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.

The fine spores that contain male gametes and that are borne by an anther in a flowering plant

A source or beginning; a germ

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

A small crystal used to start a crystallization process.

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

Offspring; progeny.

Family stock; ancestry.

Sperm; semen.

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

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

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

To remove the seeds from (fruit).

To furnish with something that grows or stimulates growth or development

To disperse to, as cancer cells

To disperse or transfer (cancer cells, for example)

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

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

To rank (a contestant) in this way.

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

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;