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Use of <i>Plantago ovata</i> Forsk leaf (also known as blond plantain or isabgol) extract is a novel approach for ameliorating water stress in various agronomic crops such as maize (<i>Zea mays</i> L.). To examine the potential roles of <i>P. ovata</i> extract (0, 20 and 40%) in increasing seed germination, plant growth, photosynthetic measurements, stomatal properties, oxidative stress and antioxidant response, ions uptake and the relationship between studied parameters, we investigated the impacts of its short-term seed priming on <i>Z. mays</i> L. elite cultivar “Cimmyt-Pak” under a control environment and a water deficit stress environment (induced by PEG). It was evident that water deficit stress conditions induced a negative impact on plant growth, stomatal properties and ion uptake in different organs of <i>Z. mays</i>. The decrease in growth-related attributes might be due to overproduction of oxidative stress biomarkers, i.e., malondialdehyde (MDA) contents, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) initiation, and electrolyte leakage (%), which was also overcome by the enzymatic antioxidants, i.e., superoxidase dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and non-enzymatic antioxidants, which increased under the water stress environment. However, seed priming with <i>P. ovata</i> extract positively increased germination rate and growth profile, and protected photosynthetic apparatus and stomatal properties by decreasing oxidative stress indicators and increasing activities of antioxidant compounds. Our results also depicted that the optimum concentration of <i>P. ovata</i> extract for <i>Z. mays</i> seedlings under water stress conditions was 20%, while a further increase in <i>P. ovata</i> extract (40%) induced a non-significant negative impact on growth and biomass of <i>Z. mays</i> seedling. In addition, the effect was more promising on <i>Z. mays</i> seedlings when grown under controlled conditions. Here, we concluded that the understanding of the role of seed priming with <i>P. ovata</i> extract in the increment of growth-related attributes, photosynthetic apparatus (<i>Pn</i>, <i>Gs</i>, <i>Ts</i> and <i>Ci</i>) and nutrient uptake (Ca²⁺, Fe²⁺, P and Mg²⁺) introduces new possibilities for their effective use in water deficit stress environments and shows a promising foundation for <i>Z. mays</i> tolerance against water deficit stress conditions.