sperm

plural sperms

1. countableThe reproductive cell or gamete of the male; a spermatozoon.

   Out of two hundred million sperm, one penetrates the egg.

   1999, John Vernon, “Origins”, in A Book of Reasons, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 229

   4 more examples

   In the Fall into the division of labor, Levi-Strauss sees the great hunters trading women to create the exogamous bonds of one hunting band with another. The egg is, but the sperm does. The tiny sperm may be furious in its activity, but its highway to the egg is paved by the alkaline trail set down by the Great Mother.

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 80

   Seeing the two little moving cells – the result of her egg and Luke's sperm – was incredible, and two very long weeks later the clinic confirmed I was pregnant.

   2012 April 13, Sarah Whitehouse, The Guardian

   “Female may accept the sperms of male that can catapult but deplete the sperms of male that can be easily caught by her,” he said.

   2022 April 26, Megan Marples, “Tiny spider catapults to safety after mating to avoid sexual cannibalism”, in CNN

   However, in some men precum will contain sperm so adequate protection should be used to prevent pregnancy.

   2024 June 11, Dr. Steve Chapman, “Is swallowing semen good for you?”, in Better2Know

   Synonyms: spermatozoon, sperm cell

2. slanguncountableSemen; the generative substance of male animals.

   Deer sperm was in used among the Romans as an aphrodisiac.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 227

   1 more example

   Other Nations there are, that never have use of fire; Others, whose sperme is of a blacke colour.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: cum, semen

3. countableuncountablechemistrySperm oil; whale oil from a sperm whale; spermaceti.

   Holding his candle so that he could read the coffin plates, and so holding it that the sperm dropped in white patches which congealed as they touched the metal, he made assurance of Lucy’s coffin.

   1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula

present singular third person sperms · participle present sperming · participle past spermed · past spermed

1. intransitiveslangvulgarTo ejaculate.
2. slangtransitivevulgarTo ejaculate on or into.