What does regrown mean?
Regrown is the past-tense and past-participle form of regrow, meaning to grow again after an interruption. In its most familiar adjectival use, it describes vegetation or another living structure that has begun growing anew: grass can regrow over a bare patch, while transplanted follicles may produce regrown hair. The word can also carry a broader, slightly figurative sense of something restored or re-established after being damaged or removed. Its uses are standard rather than highly literary, and it is especially common in gardening, biology, medicine, and personal care. Unlike renewed, which can mean merely continued or restarted, regrown focuses specifically on actual new growth. The spelling is normally closed, and the word is most natural before a noun or as a participle in constructions such as “the crop was regrown.” As a verb in its own right, regrown is less common than regrow and regrowing but is fully standard when describing a plant, body of tissue, or other subject that grows again.
That has grown again after being cut, removed, damaged, or interrupted.
"The gardener cleared away the dead stalks, leaving only regrown shoots at the base."
Common as an attributive modifier, especially for vegetation, hair, tissue, and other biological material.
The simple past tense and past participle of regrow, meaning to grow again.
"By spring, the moss had regrown across the stones."
Most often encountered in the perfect passive, as in “had been regrown,” or as an attributive participle.
Give a plant a second chance: regrown turns simple recovery into visible new life.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does regrown come from?
Regrown was formed by adding the prefix re-, meaning “again,” to grow and applying the ordinary English past-participle ending -n. The base verb grow descends from Old English grōwan, while the closely related forms grew, grown, and growth developed through its historical inflections and derivational suffixes. The prefixed verb regrow is recorded from the Middle English period, with regrown serving as its past tense and past participle.
Related word forms
How regrown is actually used
This is standard, neutral English and is most natural as an attributive adjective or past participle. Its literal associations are chiefly biological, although it can also be used figuratively for communities, landscapes, or institutions recovering after decline.