spawned; spawning; spawns
1
: to deposit or fertilize spawn
2
: to produce young especially in large numbers
1
a
: to produce or deposit (eggs)
—used of an aquatic animal
b
: to induce (fish) to spawn
c
: to plant with mushroom spawn
2
: bring forth, generate
the idea spawned controversy
spawner
noun
Synonyms
Examples of spawn in a Sentence
Verb
The health-food craze spawned a multimillion-dollar industry.
the incident that spawned a generation of student protests
a TV show that spawned a host of imitations
Noun
Pacific salmon return to Alaskan streams to deposit their spawn.
sometimes I think those little brats are the spawn of Satan himself
Recent Examples on the Web
Kyle Denis, Billboard, 3 Apr. 2024
More:Flooding, outages here as storms that spawned tornadoes moved through Tuesday
Drizzle and some spotty showers are expected early Wednesday morning through mid-morning.
—Haadiza Ogwude, The Enquirer, 3 Apr. 2024
After several seasons of luxe minimalism, recent fall 2024 collections spawned ubiquitous headlines heralding the return of Boho chic.
—Merle Ginsberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Mar. 2024
Released on Singleton's unfortunately named Plantation Records, Color Me Country spawned three moderately successful singles, and the album peaked at No. 40, spending two weeks on the country charts.
—Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 29 Mar. 2024
Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist whose work casting doubt on the rationality of decision-making helped spawn the field of behavioral economics and won him a Nobel Prize, has died.
—Bloomberg, Fortune, 27 Mar. 2024
And since last year, when three women were convicted of practicing female genital cutting, much of that news has focused on the practice, spawning a countrywide discussion about religion, culture, patriarchy, and reproductive health and sexuality.
—Ramatoulie Jawo, Washington Post, 19 Mar. 2024
The movie developed a cult following after its release and later spawned a hit musical adaptation on Broadway.
—Jaden Thompson, Variety, 21 Mar. 2024
Duranguense also spawned its own peculiar, shoulder-swaying dance form, and fashion style, distinguished by sombreros with brims curved up like hardshell tacos, and ultra-pointy cowboy boots.
—Tomás Mier, Rolling Stone, 20 Mar. 2024
Tanya Wildt, Detroit Free Press, 4 Apr. 2024
The game also is credited with helping spawn baseball’s sabermetrics movement because of the way statistics on Strat player cards can be evaluated.
—Laurence Miedema, The Mercury News, 26 Mar. 2024
Indiana refinery shuts down:BP Whiting power outage spawns fire, evacuations.
—Marina Johnson, The Indianapolis Star, 19 Feb. 2024
These minor prospects might have been the spawn of a nearby major mine operation.
—Mare Czinar, The Arizona Republic, 26 Jan. 2024
Rise of ‘ghost newsrooms’ spawns effort by local news startups to fill the void
The Gleaner, the local newspaper in Henderson, Ky., has sections focused on features, sports, news and opinion.
—Alexandra Bruell, WSJ, 24 Nov. 2023
All this time on water has given him a ton of insight into how bass behave around the spawn.
—Shaye Baker, Field & Stream, 21 Mar. 2024
But ''The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour'' is the strongest of the three spawn — a searing homage to one of the most dreadful spinoffs ever, The Brady Bunch Hour.
—EW.com, 18 Mar. 2024
And although the team didn’t look at other fish for this study, Feiner believes other fish that spawn in the spring, like perch, muskie, pike and bass, are likely experiencing the same timing troubles.
—Caitlin Looby, Journal Sentinel, 1 Mar. 2024
Verb
In the documentary, which spawned a Billboard chart-topping soundtrack titled Country Music: A Film by Ken Burns, there is an extensive exploration of the African roots of the banjo and how pivotal the instrument was, in addition to Black and Mexican musicians, in cultivating the genre.
—Kyle Denis, Billboard, 3 Apr. 2024
More:Flooding, outages here as storms that spawned tornadoes moved through Tuesday
Drizzle and some spotty showers are expected early Wednesday morning through mid-morning.
—Haadiza Ogwude, The Enquirer, 3 Apr. 2024
After several seasons of luxe minimalism, recent fall 2024 collections spawned ubiquitous headlines heralding the return of Boho chic.
—Merle Ginsberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Mar. 2024
Released on Singleton's unfortunately named Plantation Records, Color Me Country spawned three moderately successful singles, and the album peaked at No. 40, spending two weeks on the country charts.
—Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 29 Mar. 2024
Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist whose work casting doubt on the rationality of decision-making helped spawn the field of behavioral economics and won him a Nobel Prize, has died.
—Bloomberg, Fortune, 27 Mar. 2024
And since last year, when three women were convicted of practicing female genital cutting, much of that news has focused on the practice, spawning a countrywide discussion about religion, culture, patriarchy, and reproductive health and sexuality.
—Ramatoulie Jawo, Washington Post, 19 Mar. 2024
The movie developed a cult following after its release and later spawned a hit musical adaptation on Broadway.
—Jaden Thompson, Variety, 21 Mar. 2024
Duranguense also spawned its own peculiar, shoulder-swaying dance form, and fashion style, distinguished by sombreros with brims curved up like hardshell tacos, and ultra-pointy cowboy boots.
—Tomás Mier, Rolling Stone, 20 Mar. 2024
Noun
Volunteers may also see biologists and researchers capturing, measuring, weighing and tagging sturgeon when the sturgeon spawn run is active.
—Tanya Wildt, Detroit Free Press, 4 Apr. 2024
The game also is credited with helping spawn baseball’s sabermetrics movement because of the way statistics on Strat player cards can be evaluated.
—Laurence Miedema, The Mercury News, 26 Mar. 2024
Indiana refinery shuts down:BP Whiting power outage spawns fire, evacuations.
—Marina Johnson, The Indianapolis Star, 19 Feb. 2024
These minor prospects might have been the spawn of a nearby major mine operation.
—Mare Czinar, The Arizona Republic, 26 Jan. 2024
Rise of ‘ghost newsrooms’ spawns effort by local news startups to fill the void
The Gleaner, the local newspaper in Henderson, Ky., has sections focused on features, sports, news and opinion.
—Alexandra Bruell, WSJ, 24 Nov. 2023
All this time on water has given him a ton of insight into how bass behave around the spawn.
—Shaye Baker, Field & Stream, 21 Mar. 2024
But ''The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour'' is the strongest of the three spawn — a searing homage to one of the most dreadful spinoffs ever, The Brady Bunch Hour.
—EW.com, 18 Mar. 2024
And although the team didn’t look at other fish for this study, Feiner believes other fish that spawn in the spring, like perch, muskie, pike and bass, are likely experiencing the same timing troubles.
—Caitlin Looby, Journal Sentinel, 1 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'spawn.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Verb
Middle English, from Anglo-French espandre to spread out, shed, scatter, spawn, from Latin expandere to expand
First Known Use
Verb
15th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1
Noun
15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Time Traveler
The first known use of spawn was
in the 15th century
Dictionary Entries Near spawn
Cite this Entry
“Spawn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spawn. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
Copy Citation
Kids Definition
spawn
1 of 2 verb
ˈspȯn 
ˈspän
1
: to deposit or fertilize eggs
fish swimming upstream to spawn
2
: to produce young especially in large numbers
3
spawner
noun
spawn
2 of 2 noun1
: the eggs of aquatic animals (as fishes or oysters) that lay many small eggs
2
: product sense 2, offspring
also
: something produced in large quantities
More from Merriam-Webster on spawn
Nglish: Translation of spawn for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of spawn for Arabic Speakers
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share