seminal

adjective

sem·​i·​nal ˈse-mə-nᵊl 

1

: of, relating to, or consisting of seed or semen

seminal discharge

2

: containing or contributing the seeds of later development : creative, original

a seminal book

seminally

ˈse-mə-nᵊl-ē 

adverb

Examples of seminal in a Sentence

Kandel was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2000 for his seminal observation that it was in the action of the synapses between cells that memory existed, not in the cells themselves, and that a molecule called cyclic AMP was what allowed cells to retain memory over the long term. —Michael Greenberg, New York Review of Books, 4 Dec. 2008

Writer Susan Sontag died December 28 at age 71 after a long battle with cancer. She left behind an impressive body of fiction and criticism, including her seminal 1960s essays "Notes on Camp" and "Against Interpretation." —Allan Gurganus, Advocate, 1 Feb. 2005

I wonder if the curators who organized "Matisse Picasso" ever asked themselves why it was that Alfred H. Barr Jr., the first director of the Museum of Modern Art and the guiding spirit behind the museum's seminal exhibitions of both Picasso and Matisse, never mounted a show like the one that has now arrived at MoMA QNS. Such an exhibition might seem to be logical, almost inevitable for the Museum of Modern Art. —Jed Perl, New Republic, 3 Mar. 2003

Recent Examples on the Web

Sam Moore, half of the seminal duo Sam & Dave, died Friday (Jan. 10) in Coral Gables, Fla. —Melinda Newman, Billboard, 11 Jan. 2025

In the late eighties and nineties, the seminal group—formed on Long Island by the rappers Posdnuos and Trugoy the Dove and the d.j. Maseo—built a jazzy career on irreverent wit and outsider charm, its chummy dynamic underscored by the chemistry of its m.c.s. —The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2025

The seminal study on this topic was Rand’s Health Insurance Experiment, reported in 1981. —Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 8 Jan. 2025

Twenty-three years after 28 Days Later, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland reunite for a second sequel to their seminal digital-video zombie movie. —A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 6 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Latin seminalis, from semin-, semen seed — more at semen

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing seminal

• seminal duct
• seminal fluid
• seminal vesicle

Medical Definition

seminal

adjective

sem·​i·​nal ˈsem-ən-ᵊl 

: of, relating to, or consisting of seed or semen

seminal discharge