sperm

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

sperm (countable and uncountable, plural sperm or sperms)

  2. (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.
    • 2022 April 26, Megan Marples, “Tiny spider catapults to safety after mating to avoid sexual cannibalism”, in CNN‎[1]:
      “Female may accept the sperms of male that can catapult but deplete the sperms of male that can be easily caught by her,” he said.
    • 2024 June 11, Dr. Steve Chapman, “Is swallowing semen good for you?”, in Better2Know‎[2]:
      However, in some men precum will contain sperm so adequate protection should be used to prevent pregnancy.
  3. (uncountable, slang) Semen; the generative substance of male animals.
  4. (chemistry) Sperm oil; whale oil from a sperm whale; spermaceti.
    • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula:
      Holding his candle so that he could read the coffin plates, and so holding it that the sperm dropped in white patches which congealed as they touched the metal, he made assurance of Lucy’s coffin.

Synonyms

Hypernyms

Derived terms

Translations

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Verb

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

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

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

Noun

sperm m (definite singular spermen, uncountable)

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

Synonyms

Verb

sperm

  1. imperative of sperme

References

Turkish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /s(ɯ)pæɾm/

Noun

sperm

  1. semen (male reproductory fluid)
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