fecund

[ fee-kuhnd, -kuhnd, fek-uhnd, -uhnd ]

/ ˈfi kʌnd, -kənd, ˈfɛk ʌnd, -ənd /

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See synonyms for fecund on Thesaurus.com

adjective

producing or capable of producing offspring, fruit, vegetation, etc., in abundance; prolific; fruitful: fecund parents; fecund farmland.

very productive or creative intellectually: the fecund years of the Italian Renaissance.

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

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

OTHER WORDS FROM fecund

non·fe·cund, adjectiveun·fe·cund, adjective

Words nearby fecund

feck, fecking, feckless, fecula, feculent, fecund, fecundate, fecundity, fed, fedayee, feddan

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use fecund in a sentence

Virgin Galactic was one of a crop of private companies to sprout, mushroom-like, from the fecund decay of American spaceflight in the early 2000s.
What’s driving the pilots that will fly paying customers into space?|Amelia Urry|June 11, 2021|Washington Post
Monica West’s “Revival Season” is an emotionally fecund and spellbinding debut novel.
The spellbinding ‘Revival Season’ makes Monica West an author to watch|Naomi Jackson|May 28, 2021|Washington Post
Best to go with the fecund middle period, three novels sometimes referred to as “The London Trilogy.”
Remedial Reader: The Essential Martin Amis|Ronald K. Fried|August 24, 2012|DAILY BEAST
That openness made the early Google a chaotically fecund operation.
The Google Religion|Josh Dzieza|July 15, 2011|DAILY BEAST

Whether he was writing about sex, golf, or life in a small town, the fecund mind who gave the world Rabbit was never at rest.
John Updike's Final Chapter|Daphne Merkin|January 29, 2009|DAILY BEAST
The more religion appeals to the senses, the more fecund has been the vocabulary of oaths.
A Cursory History of Swearing|Julian Sharman
They are conceived of fecund nods and looks, of the germination of writing and initials and signatures and contract-stamps.
Mushroom Town|Oliver Onions
A new sense came to her, not altogether depressing, of life's fecund possibility for unhappiness.
The Open Question|Elizabeth Robins
And this sea also pleases me by the treasures of fecund life which I know to abound in its dark depths.
The Sea|Jules Michelet
Besides, a science made solely in view of applications is impossible; truths are fecund only if bound together.
The Foundations of Science: Science and Hypothesis, The Value of Science, Science and Method|Henri Poincar

British Dictionary definitions for fecund

fecund

/ (ˈfiːkənd, ˈfɛk-) /

adjective

greatly productive; fertile

intellectually productive; prolific

Word Origin for fecund

C14: from Latin fēcundus; related to Latin fētus offspring

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

fecund

Origin of fecund

OTHER WORDS FROM fecund

Words nearby fecund

Words related to fecund

How to use fecund in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for fecund

Word Origin for fecund