Spawn Meaning
/spɔːn/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo produce or deposit (eggs) in water.
verbTo generate, bring into being, especially nonmammalian beings in very large numbers.
Sentence Examples
What might a planet need to spawn life?
Begone, wretched spawn of Hell's unholy bowels!
CEFR Practice Quiz
During the spring, the salmon will ____ thousands of eggs in the shallow river.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Each spring, the salmon swim upriver to ____ in the shallow and clear gravel-bedded mountain streams.
Word Origin & History
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)”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Weather Underground, a covert organization that spawned countless other would-be revolutionary cadres - the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), the Black Liberation Army, the May 19 Communist Organization each of which"
— 2005, McSweeney's Pub., LLC (publisher), The Believer, volume 3, numbers 1-5, page 26:
"Alewives are anadromous fish: Born in freshwater, they spend their lives in the ocean, returning annually to their birthplaces to spawn."
— 2014 April 20, Richard Conniff, “An evolutionary family drama”, in The New York Times:
"Mavs fans really be spawning out of nowhere."
— 2022 April 21, @BibsCorner, Twitter, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2024:
"So many virgos have spawned in my life lately"
— 2022 May 24, @ambarlucid, Twitter, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2024:
"I swear a new vtuber with 250,000 subscribers and wildly transphobic views just spawns every other fucking week"
— 2023 March 10, u/beskardboard, “rule”, in Reddit, r/196, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2024:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
During the spring, the salmon will ____ thousands of eggs in the shallow river.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Each spring, the salmon swim upriver to ____ in the shallow and clear gravel-bedded mountain streams.