fertility

[ fer-til-i-tee ]

noun

1. the state or quality of being fertile.
2. Biology. the ability to produce offspring; power of reproduction:

   the amazing fertility of rabbits.

3. the birthrate of a population.
4. (of soil) the capacity to supply nutrients in proper amounts for plant growth when other factors are favorable.

fertility

/ fɜːˈtɪlɪtɪ /

noun

1. the ability to produce offspring, esp abundantly
2. the state or quality of being fertile

Other Words From

• nonfer·tili·ty noun
• over·fer·tili·ty noun
• prefer·tili·ty noun
• unfer·tili·ty noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of fertility¹

1375–1425; late Middle English fertilite (< Middle French ) < Latin fertilitās. See fertile, -ity

Example Sentences

Based on this scant evidence, Mellaart announced that the people of Çatalhöyük were a matriarchy that worshipped a fertility goddess.

From Popular-Science

Last time around, we’d had some help from a fertility clinic.

From Vox

So, the combination of those two trends, those are my best guesses as to why we’ve seen fertility declining in most high-income countries.

From Freakonomics

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, fertility clinics braced themselves for a downturn.

From Time

Whitlock details three local cases in which women discovered their biological fathers were actually the fertility doctors their families had turned to for help conceiving.

From Voice of San Diego

Marx forecast that the profit motive would lead to overworking and exhausting the fertility of our soil and other natural systems.

From The Daily Beast

Six months of sterility results, after which normal fertility returns.

From The Daily Beast

In Wicca, the female goddess is represented by the Moon, a symbol of Mother Earth and fertility.

From The Daily Beast

Women who were active most days were more than three times more likely to have fertility problems than inactive women.

From The Daily Beast

A Norwegian population-based survey of nearly 4,000 women under 45 found a clear link between exercise intensity and fertility.

From The Daily Beast

His banks were teeming with happy dusky figures and the smiling irrigated land was bright with fertility.

From Project Gutenberg

There is a great variety of soils found here, and most of them have a fair degree of plant fertility.

From Project Gutenberg

But in Virginia it was grown without interruption or alternation, and the plantations rapidly deteriorated in fertility.

From Project Gutenberg

For this reason soils produced from the syenitic rocks are frequently possessed of considerable fertility.

From Project Gutenberg

The forms of combination most favourable to fertility is a subject on which our information is at present comparatively limited.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• potency
• pregnancy
• productivity
• virility