noun
pollen
PO-luhn
noun
1
The fine, powdery substance produced by flowers, containing the plant's male reproductive cells.
"Bees carry pollen from flower to flower as they feed."
"Her eyes were streaming from all the pollen in the air."
How to Use Pollen
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThe powder flowers release that fertilizes other plants and often triggers hay fever.
Common pairings
pollen count
pollen allergy
covered in pollen
Word Forms
pollened past tense, pollens plural, pollens singular
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Bees carry _____ from flower to flower as they feed.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin pollen, "fine flour" or "dust," and applied to flower spores by the botanist Carl Linnaeus in the 1700s.