fecund
Americanadjective
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producing or capable of producing offspring, fruit, vegetation, etc., in abundance; prolific; fruitful.
fecund parents; fecund farmland.
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very productive or creative intellectually.
the fecund years of the Italian Renaissance.
adjective
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greatly productive; fertile
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intellectually productive; prolific
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fecund
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin fēcundus, equivalent to fē- ( see fetus) + -cundus adj. suffix; replacing late Middle English fecounde < Anglo-French
Explanation
The adjective fecund describes things that are highly fertile and that easily produce offspring or fruit. Rabbits are often considered to be fecund animals, and you may hear jokes in poor taste about people reproducing like rabbits if they have a lot of children. The word fecund comes from the Latin word fecundus, meaning fruitful. But the English word does not just describe something or someone fertile, the adjective fecund can also be used to describe someone who is innovative or highly intellectually productive. Your fecund imagination will be an asset if you have to tell ghost stories around the fire at camp while eating s'mores but that same fecund imagination could be less helpful if you're at home alone on a stormy night and you think you hear a knock at the door!
Vocabulary lists containing fecund
The Vernal Vocabulary of Spring
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Heart of Darkness
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List 8
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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 idea, in theory, is that all of these economic policies, when combined with the party’s traditional social conservatism, will make it easier for regular working folks to thrive and be fecund.
From Slate ● Jan. 11, 2024
Giant clouds like this are relatively rare but crank out stars on an industrial scale, while the smaller clouds are less fecund but litter the galaxy.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 24, 2023
The primary species of rat in both New York and Los Angeles is Rattus norvegicus, the brown rat: a midsize rodent that has a whiplike tail and is resilient, intuitive and remarkably fecund.
From New York Times ● Feb. 27, 2023
Burmese pythons have become a scourge in the Everglades of south Florida since one was first spotted in the 1970s — ferocious, fecund and indiscriminate in their feeding behavior.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2022
“In due season all that lives returns to dust, making the earth fecund with life. Smell how the air tonight is pregnant with the flowers’ blooms and their bee-sought sweetness.”
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
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.
