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emergent

emergent

1 7.0
A plant that grows above the water and other plants
  • noun
  • /ɪˈmɜrdʒənt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : planta emergente
  • The analysis is focused on the emergent.

Examples

  • The idea of culture emergent takes into account the interactions of individuals as well as the process of change in culture over time.

    Academic text (2001)
  • You could see how quickly you could kill a new emergent, snuffing it out within a heartbeat of its first glimpse of daylight.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • During this process, the agreement schemes dictated the necessity to collapse two of the theme emergents into a single theme.

    Academic text (2006)
  • I think the position that many Christians (especially emergents) are now taking, to which this post is a rebuttal, has been misrepresented.

    Blog text (23)
  • The forest canopy consists of small-crowned trees and fewer emergents than continental tropical forests (Weaver 1986).

    Academic text (1997)
  • Nothing against Christian and Jordan—I enjoyed the conversation—but "emergents" don't seem very intentional about breaking out of the stereotype.

    Blog text (6)
  • Glyphosate returns the wetlands to their natural state of open water interspersed with sparse stands of emergents (Linz and Homan 2010).

    Academic text (2011)
  • One such conceptualization is the idea of "culture emergent" (Bonder, Martin, and Miracle, in press), which is based on the notion of culture as expressed through individual behavior reflecting the multiple influences that shape human experience: culture emerges in the interaction of transient circumstances and traditional patterns of behavior.

    Academic text (2001)
  • In wetlands, emergent plants like cattails and bulrushes grow tall, reaching above the water's surface.

  • The emergents in the rainforest, such as giant kapok trees, provide habitat for many animals that live high above the understory.

Synonyms

emerger
vsemergent
8.5

A person or company that becomes known for new ideas

describes a plant or organism rising above water or surrounding vegetation

Antonyms

4.2

Completely under the surface of water

Compounds

9.9

A theory that new qualities appear during the history of life and cannot be predicted from what came before

How High

towering
4.0
prominent
353 3.9
emergent
  • Specialized
1 7.0
submerged
4.2

Surface Forms

emergent singular
emergents plural

Morphology

emergent = emerge (semi-transparent) = emerge + ent

The word is built from 'emerge' + '-ent', but the botanical noun sense is specialized, so the meaning is only partly predictable from the base.

Etymology

Emergent comes from Latin emergere meaning 'to rise out'. Picture a reed 'rising out' of the water; that image explains why an emergent is a plant that grows above the water or above other plants.