Nut vs. Seed — What's the Difference?
Edited by Tayyaba Rehman — By Maham Liaqat — Updated on May 4, 2024
Nuts are hard-shelled fruits that generally contain one seed, whereas seeds are embryonic plants enclosed in protective outer coverings, integral to plant reproduction.
Difference Between Nut and Seed
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Nuts are botanically defined as a type of fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, where the shell does not open to release the seed naturally. On the other hand, seeds are the reproductive part of a plant, containing an embryo, and are crucial for the species' propagation.
Nuts are eaten as snacks or used in cooking and baking for their crunchy texture and rich flavor. Seeds, while also edible, are often used in a variety of ways including as health supplements, in baking, or for growing new plants.
From a dietary perspective, nuts are high in fats, proteins, and essential nutrients, making them a dense source of energy. Seeds are also nutrient-rich but tend to have higher fiber content and various unique nutritional profiles depending on the type of seed.
In terms of cultivation, nuts like almonds, walnuts, and pecans grow on trees and require several years to mature. Seeds such as sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and chia seeds can come from different types of plants like flowers, fruits, or vegetables and generally have shorter growth cycles.
The dispersal mechanisms for nuts and seeds vary significantly; nuts often rely on animals to break open their hard shells and scatter the seeds, while many seeds have adaptations like wings or fluff that allow them to be carried by wind or water.
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Comparison Chart
Botanical Definition
Hard-shelled fruit, does not open naturally
Embryonic plant, enclosed in an outer covering
Common Uses
Snacks, cooking, baking
Health supplements, gardening, baking
Nutritional Content
High in fats, proteins
High in fiber, varies by seed type
Growth Environment
Grow on trees, longer maturation
Various plants, shorter growth cycles
Dispersal Mechanism
Animal-mediated
Wind, water, animal
Compare with Definitions
Nut
A fruit consisting of a hard or tough shell around a single seed.
The walnut cracked open to reveal the nut inside.
Seed
Can be dispersed by natural elements or animals.
Maple seeds whirl away from the parent tree on their wing-like structures.
Nut
Requires a period to mature on trees.
The pecan tree takes about 6 to 10 years to produce its first nuts.
Seed
The plant’s reproductive unit capable of developing into another plant.
The seed sprouted into a young sapling within weeks.
Nut
Generally not free from its shell naturally.
Peanuts, although commonly called nuts, are technically legumes.
Seed
Used for planting or as a dietary supplement.
Flax seeds are added to diets for their high fiber and omega-3 fatty acids.
Nut
Eaten raw, roasted, or used in recipes.
She added chopped nuts to the cake batter for extra crunch.
Seed
Includes a variety of types from different plants.
Chia seeds are small but packed with energy and nutrients.
Nut
Often associated with dietary fats and proteins.
Almonds are a good source of healthy fats and proteins.
Seed
Contains an embryo, a food supply, and a protective coat.
Each sunflower seed is packed with nutrients to support initial growth.
Nut
An indehiscent fruit having a single seed enclosed in a hard shell, such as an acorn or hazelnut.
Seed
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering. The formation of the seed is part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm plants.
Nut
The usually edible seed of such a fruit.
Seed
A mature plant ovule containing an embryo.
Nut
Any of various other usually edible seeds enclosed in a hard covering such as a seed coat or the stone of a drupe, as in a pine nut, peanut, almond, or walnut.
Seed
A small dry fruit, spore, or other propagative plant part.
Nut
A crazy or eccentric person.
Seed
Seeds considered as a group
A farmer buying seed.
Nut
An enthusiast; a buff
A movie nut.
Seed
The seed-bearing stage of a plant
The grass is in seed.
Nut
(Informal) A difficult endeavor or problem
Painting the closet was a tough nut to crack.
Seed
A larval shellfish or a hatchling fish
Released scallop seed in the bay.
Nut
(Slang) The human head.
Seed
An egg or cocoon of certain insects
Silkworm seed.
Nut
A ridge of wood at the top of the fingerboard or neck of a stringed instrument, over which the strings pass.
Seed
A tiny bubble in a piece of glass.
Nut
A device at the lower end of the bow for a stringed instrument, used for tightening the hairs.
Seed
(Medicine) A form of a radioactive isotope that is used to localize and concentrate the amount of radiation administered to a body site, such as a tumor.
Nut
A small block of metal or wood with a central, threaded hole that is designed to fit around and secure a bolt or screw.
Seed
A source or beginning; a germ
The seed of an idea.
Nut
The cost of launching a business venture.
Seed
A small amount of material used to start a chemical reaction.
Nut
The operating expenses of a theater, theatrical production, or similar enterprise
"The [theater] has simply failed to attract enough paying customers per week to meet its nut" (Variety).
Seed
A small crystal used to start a crystallization process.
Nut
Vulgar Slang A testicle.
Seed
A cell that disperses, especially a cancer cell that spreads from a primary tumor to another location in the body.
Nut
To gather or hunt for nuts.
Seed
Offspring; progeny.
Nut
Vulgar Slang To ejaculate.
Seed
Family stock; ancestry.
Nut
Any of various hard-shelled seeds or hard, dry fruits from various families of plants.
There are many sorts of nuts: peanuts, cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts and more.
Seed
Sperm; semen.
Nut
Such a fruit that is indehiscent.
Seed
(Sports) A player who has been seeded for a tournament, often at a given rank
A top seed.
Nut
(hardware) A piece of hardware, typically metal and typically hexagonal or square in shape, with a hole through it having internal screw threads, intended to be screwed onto a threaded bolt or other threaded shaft.
Seed
To plant seeds in (land, for example); sow.
Nut
(slang) The head. 19
Seed
To plant (a crop, for example) as seeds in soil.
Nut
(slang) A crazy person.
He was driving his car like a nut.
Seed
To remove the seeds from (fruit).
Nut
An extravagantly fashionable young man.
Seed
To furnish with something that grows or stimulates growth or development
A bioreactor seeded with bacteria.
Nut
The glans structure at the extremity of the penis or of the clitoris.
Seed
To disperse to, as cancer cells
Organs seeded by circulating tumor cells.
Nut
A testicle.
I kicked him in the nuts.
Seed
To disperse or transfer (cancer cells, for example)
A needle biopsy that seeded cancer cells into adjacent tissue.
Seed stem cells onto collagen gels.
Nut
Semen, ejaculate.
Seed
(Meteorology) To sprinkle (a cloud) with particles, as of silver iodide, in order to disperse it or to produce precipitation.
Nut
Orgasm, ejaculation; especially release of semen.
He just needs a good nut to make him feel better.
Seed
To arrange (the drawing for positions in a tournament) so that the more skilled contestants meet in the later rounds.
Nut
Monthly expense to keep a venture running.
Seed
To rank (a contestant) in this way.
Nut
The amount of money necessary to set up some venture; set-up costs.
Seed
To help (a business, for example) in its early development.
Nut
A stash of money owned by an extremely rich investor, sufficient to sustain a high level of consumption if all other money is lost.
Seed
To sow seed.
Nut
On stringed instruments such as guitars and violins, the small piece at the peghead end of the fingerboard that holds the strings at the proper spacing and, in most cases, the proper height.
Seed
To pass into the seed-bearing stage.
Nut
En, a unit of measurement equal to half of the height of the type in use.
Seed
(Medicine) To disperse and often multiply, as cancer cells.
Nut
(climbing) A shaped piece of metal, threaded by a wire loop, which is jammed in a crack in the rockface and used to protect a climb. (Originally, machine nuts [sense #2] were used for this purpose.)
Seed
Set aside for planting a new crop
Seed corn.
Seed potatoes.
Nut
The best possible hand of a certain type, for instance: nut straight, nut flush, and nut full house. Compare t=the best possible hand available.
Seed
Intended to help in early stages
Provided seed capital for a fledgling business.
Nut
(nautical) A projection on each side of the shank of an anchor, to secure the stock in place.
Seed
A fertilized and ripened ovule, containing an embryonic plant.
Nut
(archaic) A small rounded cake or cookie.
Seed
(countable) Any small seed-like fruit.
If you plant a seed in the spring, you may have a pleasant surprise in the autumn.
Nut
(mostly in the form "nutting") To gather nuts.
Seed
Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs.
Nut
To hit deliberately with the head; to headbutt.
Seed
An amount of seeds that cannot be readily counted.
The entire field was covered with geese eating the freshly sown seed.
Nut
To orgasm; to ejaculate.
Seed
(countable) A fragment of coral.
Nut
(slang) To hit in the testicles.
Seed
(uncountable) Semen.
A man must use his seed to start and raise a family.
Nut
(slang) To defeat thoroughly.
Seed
A precursor.
The seed of an idea
Which idea was the seed (idea)?
Nut
No.
Seed
(countable) The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.
Nut
The fruit of certain trees and shrubs (as of the almond, walnut, hickory, beech, filbert, etc.), consisting of a hard and indehiscent shell inclosing a kernel.
Seed
(sports) The initial position of a competitor or team in a tournament. (seed position)
The team with the best regular season record receives the top seed in the conference tournament.
Nut
A perforated block (usually a small piece of metal), provided with an internal or female screw thread, used on a bolt, or screw, for tightening or holding something, or for transmitting motion. See Illust. of 1st Bolt.
Seed
The competitor or team occupying a given seed. (seed position)
The rookie was a surprising top seed.
Nut
A projection on each side of the shank of an anchor, to secure the stock in place.
Seed
(cryptography) The initialization state of a pseudorandom number generator or similar system. (seed number)
If you use the same seed you will get exactly the same pattern of numbers.
Nut
Testicles.
Seed
Commercial message in a creative format placed on relevant sites on the Internet. (seed idea or seed message)
The latest seed has attracted a lot of users in our online community.
Nut
To gather nuts.
Seed
Offspring, descendants, progeny.
The seed of Abraham
Nut
Usually large hard-shelled seed
Seed
Race; generation; birth.
Nut
Egyptian goddess of the sky
Seed
A small bubble formed in imperfectly fused glass.
Nut
A small (usually square or hexagonal) metal block with internal screw thread to be fitted onto a bolt
Seed
(transitive) To plant or sow an area with seeds.
I seeded my lawn with bluegrass.
Nut
Half the width of an em
Seed
(transitive) To cover thinly with something scattered; to ornament with seedlike decorations.
Nut
A whimsically eccentric person
Seed
(transitive) To start; to provide, assign or determine the initial resources for, position of, state of.
A venture capitalist seeds young companies.
The tournament coordinator will seed the starting lineup with the best competitors from the qualifying round.
The programmer seeded fresh, uncorrupted data into the database before running unit tests.
Nut
Someone who is so ardently devoted to something that it resembles an addiction;
A golf addict
A car nut
A news junkie
Seed
To allocate a seeding to a competitor.
Nut
One of the two male reproductive glands that produce spermatozoa and secrete androgens;
She kicked him in the balls and got away
Seed
To leave (files) available for others to download through peer-to-peer file sharing protocols (e.g. BitTorrent).
Nut
Gather nuts
Seed
(intransitive) To be qualified to compete, especially in a quarter-final, semi-final, or final.
The tennis player seeded into the quarters.
Seed
(intransitive) To produce seed.
Seed
(intransitive) To grow to maturity.
Seed
To ejaculate inside the penetratee during intercourse, especially in the rectum.
Seed
(dialectal) see
Seed
A ripened ovule, consisting of an embryo with one or more integuments, or coverings; as, an apple seed; a currant seed. By germination it produces a new plant.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself.
Seed
The generative fluid of the male; semen; sperm; - not used in the plural.
Seed
That from which anything springs; first principle; original; source; as, the seeds of virtue or vice.
Seed
The principle of production.
Praise of great acts he scatters as a seed,Which may the like in coming ages breed.
Seed
Progeny; offspring; children; descendants; as, the seed of Abraham; the seed of David.
Seed
Race; generation; birth.
Of mortal seed they were not held.
Seed
To sow seed.
Seed
To shed the seed.
Seed
To grow to maturity, and to produce seed.
Many interests have grown up, and seeded, and twisted their roots in the crevices of many wrongs.
Seed
To sprinkle with seed; to plant seeds in; to sow; as, to seed a field.
Seed
To cover thinly with something scattered; to ornament with seedlike decorations.
A sable mantle seeded with waking eyes.
Seed
A small hard fruit
Seed
A mature fertilized plant ovule consisting of an embryo and its food source and having a protective coat or testa
Seed
One of the outstanding players in a tournament
Seed
Anything that provides inspiration for later work
Seed
The thick white fluid containing spermatozoa that is ejaculated by the male genital tract
Seed
Go to seed; shed seeds;
The dandelions went to seed
Seed
Help (an enterprise) in its early stages of development by providing seed money
Seed
Bear seeds
Seed
Place (seeds) in or on the ground for future growth;
She sowed sunflower seeds
Seed
Distribute (players or teams) so that outstanding teams or players will not meet in the early rounds
Seed
Sprinkle with silver iodide particles to disperse and cause rain;
Seed clouds
Seed
Inoculate with microorganisms
Seed
Remove the seeds from;
Seed grapes
Common Curiosities
What are some common uses of nuts and seeds?
Nuts are commonly used as snacks or in culinary dishes, while seeds are used for planting, in health supplements, or as food ingredients.
How do nuts and seeds contribute to a diet?
Nuts provide high energy, proteins, and fats, whereas seeds offer dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
What is the main botanical difference between a nut and a seed?
A nut is a type of fruit with a hard shell that doesn’t naturally open to release its seed, while a seed is an embryonic plant itself, encased in a protective outer covering.
What types of plants do nuts come from?
Nuts typically come from various types of trees, such as walnut, almond, and pecan trees.
How should nuts and seeds be stored?
Both should be stored in cool, dry places; nuts may require refrigeration to extend freshness due to their high fat content.
Can all nuts and seeds be eaten?
Most nuts and seeds are edible, but some require processing to remove toxins or improve digestibility.
Are seeds more nutritious than nuts?
Seeds and nuts both contain valuable nutrients, but their nutritional profiles vary; seeds generally have higher fiber and certain vitamins, depending on the type.
How are seeds dispersed in nature?
Seeds can be dispersed through several mechanisms including wind, water, or by animals, which helps in the spread of the plant species.
Can nuts be used to grow new plants?
Yes, the seed inside a nut can be planted to grow a new tree, although it often requires specific conditions to germinate.
What is a false nut?
A false nut, like the peanut, is actually a legume but is commonly referred to as a nut due to its similar culinary use and nutritional profile.
Do seeds need to be treated before eating?
Some seeds, like kidney beans, need cooking to eliminate toxins, while others can be eaten raw or added as is to dishes.
Can allergies to nuts and seeds be severe?
Yes, allergies to nuts and seeds can be severe and life-threatening, with nut allergies being particularly well-known for their severity.
Which are better for weight management, nuts or seeds?
Both can be part of a weight management diet, but moderation is key due to their high energy densities.
What environmental conditions favor the growth of nuts and seeds?
Nuts typically require temperate climates, while seeds vary widely depending on the plant species, with some thriving in arid conditions and others in wetter climates.
Why are nuts typically more expensive than seeds?
Nuts often require more resources and time to cultivate and harvest, making them generally more expensive than seeds.
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Written by
Maham Liaqat
Edited by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
