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sperm

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

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From Middle English sperme, from Latin sperma, from Ancient Greek σπέρμα (spérma, seed, semen). Compare also Old French esperme, sparme.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /spɜɹm/
  • (UK) IPA(key): /spɜːm/
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)m
  • Hyphenation: sperm

Noun

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sperm (countable and uncountable, plural sperm or sperms)

  1. (countable) The reproductive cell or gamete of the male; a spermatozoon.
    • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 80:
      In the Fall into the division of labor, Levi-Strauss sees the great hunters trading women to create the exogamous bonds of one hunting band with another. The egg is, but the sperm does. The tiny sperm may be furious in its activity, but its highway to the egg is paved by the alkaline trail set down by the Great Mother.
    • 2012 April 13, Sarah Whitehouse, The Guardian:
      Seeing the two little moving cells – the result of her egg and Luke's sperm – was incredible, and two very long weeks later the clinic confirmed I was pregnant.
  2. (uncountable, slang) Semen; the generative substance of male animals.
  3. (chemistry) Sperm oil; whale oil from a sperm whale; spermaceti.

Synonyms

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Hypernyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

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sperm (third-person singular simple present sperms, present participle sperming, simple past and past participle spermed)

  1. (intransitive, slang, vulgar) To ejaculate.
  2. (transitive, slang, vulgar) To ejaculate on or into.

Anagrams

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Norwegian Bokmål

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Etymology

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From Ancient Greek σπέρμα (spérma) (sense 1).

Noun

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sperm m (definite singular spermen, uncountable)

  1. sperm
  2. short for spermasett (spermaceti); see spermhval.

Synonyms

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Verb

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sperm

  1. imperative of sperme

References

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Turkish

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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sperm

  1. semen (male reproductory fluid)