fructification
Americannoun
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act of fructifying; the fruiting of a plant, fungus, etc.
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the fruit itself.
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the organs of fruiting; fruiting body.
noun
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the act or state of fructifying
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the fruit of a seed-bearing plant
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any spore-bearing structure in ferns, mosses, fungi, etc
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The producing of fruit by an angiosperm.
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A seed-bearing or spore-bearing structure.
Etymology
Origin of fructification
1605–15; < Late Latin frūctificātion- (stem of frūctificātiō ) a bearing of fruit, equivalent to Latin frūctificāt ( us ) (past participle of frūctificāre; see fructify) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
Fructification is the process of growing fruit. During fructification, a pear tree will first grow fragrant blossoms before they develop into delicious pears. When a plant undergoes fructification, you can also say it fructifies, or develops so that it can produce fruit. Both words stem from the Latin fructificare, "bear fruit," and its root fructus, which means both "fruit" and "profit or enjoyment." You can use fructification in this figurative way too, to mean "make productive." You might say, "The fructification of my lemonade stand means I can pay you back for all that sugar I borrowed!"
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The fructification forms in the substance of the tips of the frond: the rough dots mark the places where the conceptacles open.
From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa
A spore borne at the extremity of the cells of fructification in fungi.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Webster, Noah
The larger species assumed a complexity in the structure of their stems unknown in their modern congeners, and enabling them to grow to a great height;31 but their foliage and fructification were not correspondingly advanced.
From The Chain of Life in Geological Time A Sketch of the Origin and Succession of Animals and Plants by Dawson, Sir J. William
The fructification in this species is cylindrical, and in that of E. limosum, which grows in similar situations, it is ovate in outline.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 6 "Home, Daniel" to "Hortensius, Quintus" by Various
The fructification of Ferns is borne on the back or under side of the leaves.
From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
