spawn

CEFRC1

/spɔːn/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To produce or cause something to develop.

  2. 02

    noun

    The eggs of fish or other animals.

Examples

  • Begone, wretched spawn of Hell's unholy bowels!

  • What might a planet need to spawn life?

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To bring forth in general.

  2. To generate, bring into being, especially nonmammalian beings in very large numbers.

  3. To produce or deposit (eggs) in water.

More examples

In context

  • A frog spawns thousands of tadpoles every year.

  • The web server spawns a new process to handle each client's request.

  • We put down torches to stop creepers from spawning.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

During the spring, the salmon will blank thousands of eggs in the shallow river.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

Recorded since 1413; from Middle English spawnen, from Anglo-Norman espaundre, from Old French espandre, from Latin expandere (“stretch out; spread out”, verb). Doublet of expand. Compare also Middle English spalden, spolden, spawden (“to cut open (a fish)”).