germ vs seed

germ

verb
  • To germinate. 

  • To grow, as if parasitic. 

noun
  • The origin or earliest version of an idea or project. 

  • The small mass of cells from which a part of an organism develops, or a macroscopic but immature form of that part; a bud. 

  • The embryo of a seed, especially of a seed used as a cereal or grain. See Wikipedia article on cereal germ. 

  • A pathogen: a pathogenic microorganism, such as a bacterium or virus. 

  • An equivalence class that includes a specified function defined in an open neighborhood. 

seed

verb
  • To produce seed. 

  • To grow to maturity. 

  • To cover thinly with something scattered; to ornament with seedlike decorations. 

  • To allocate a seeding to a competitor. 

  • To plant or sow an area with seeds. 

  • To leave (files) available for others to download through peer-to-peer file sharing protocols (e.g. BitTorrent). 

  • To be qualified to compete, especially in a quarter-final, semi-final, or final. 

  • To ejaculate inside the penetratee during intercourse, especially in the rectum. 

  • To start; to provide, assign or determine the initial resources for, position of, state of. 

noun
  • A fragment of coral. 

  • The initial position of a competitor or team in a tournament. (seed position) 

  • Initialization state of a pseudorandom number generator (PRNG). (seed number) 

  • A precursor. 

  • An amount of seeds that cannot be readily counted. 

  • Any small seed-like fruit. 

  • Semen. 

  • The competitor or team occupying a given seed. (seed position) 

  • Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs. 

  • Commercial message in a creative format placed on relevant sites on the Internet. (seed idea or seed message) 

  • Race; generation; birth. 

  • A small bubble formed in imperfectly fused glass. 

  • A fertilized and ripened ovule, containing an embryonic plant. 

How often have the words germ and seed occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )