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

That is the book historian Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote that debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, about the epic story of the love of her life, Richard Goodwin, peppered with his experiences as a seminal figure in the most turbulent events of the ’60s. —Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline, 14 Feb. 2025

Tony Roberts, the character actor who appeared in Annie Hall and numerous other seminal '70s films, has died. —Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 8 Feb. 2025

Originally announced way back in May 2023, most had expected the remake of Konami’s seminal 2004 stealth action game to arrive some time last year (mainly because Sony themselves said so), but despite multiple previews, 2024 came and went without any insight about Delta’s launch. —Ashley Bardhan, Rolling Stone, 6 Feb. 2025

Osip Mandelstam wrote a seminal essay on Dante, which is also an ars poetica, around the time that he was sent into internal exile under Stalin, and Seamus Heaney began a decades-long intimacy with the Comedy in the nineteen-seventies, as sectarian violence in Northern Ireland worsened. —Elisa Gonzalez, The New Yorker, 3 Feb. 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