fertile

[fur-tl or, esp. British, -tahyl]

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adjective

bearing, producing, or capable of producing vegetation, crops, etc., abundantly; prolific: fertile soil.

bearing or capable of bearing offspring.

abundantly productive: a fertile imagination.

producing an abundance (usually followed by of or in): a land fertile of wheat.

conducive to productiveness: fertile showers.

Biology.

fertilized, as an egg or ovum; fecundated.
capable of growth or development, as seeds or eggs.

Botany.

capable of producing sexual reproductive structures.
capable of causing fertilization, as an anther with fully developed pollen.
having spore-bearing organs, as a frond.

Physics. (of a nuclide) capable of being transmuted into a fissile nuclide by irradiation with neutrons: Uranium 238 and thorium 232 are fertile nuclides.Compare fissile(def 2).

produced in abundance.

Nearby words

Origin of fertile

1425–75; late Middle English (< Middle French) < Latin fertilis fruitful, akin to ferre to bear¹; see -ile

SYNONYMS FOR fertile

1–3. fecund, teeming. See productive.

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ANTONYMS FOR fertile

1–3. sterile, barren.

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Related forms

fer·tile·ly, adverbfer·tile·ness, nounhalf-fer·tile, adjectivehalf-fer·tile·ly, adverb

half-fer·tile·ness, nounnon·fer·tile, adjectiveo·ver·fer·tile, adjectivepre·fer·tile, adjectiveun·fer·tile, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for fertile

At present, not every woman is young enough, fertile enough, or healthy enough to have a baby using her own eggs or her own womb.
Men Will Someday Have Kids Without Women|Samantha Allen|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The ground was fertile, with alluvial, or unconsolidated, soil.
Ester Elchies, The Estate Built By Whiskey||December 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Some parts were arid, nearly barren, others green and fertile.
‘The Harness Maker’s Dream:’ The Unlikely Ranch King of Texas|Nick Kotz|September 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Not even the most fertile imagination could have conjured a better monster-in-the-dark than IS.
The Young Girls Escaping the ISIS War|Chandra Kellison|September 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Of course the Internet, where the cat is king, has proved a fertile breeding ground for these ventures.
London Joins Cat Café Craze Sweeping the Globe|Nico Hines|April 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In the case of the fertile fronds only the upper portion produces the clusters of spore cases.
How to Know the Ferns|S. Leonard Bastin
Calyx of the sterile flowers 4-parted, of the fertile 4-toothed.
The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States|Asa Gray
I had to pass over, I was informed, the most fertile and best cultivated tract of country in Norway.
Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark|Mary Wollstonecraft
During the lifetimes of the temporary lakes enough sediment was deposited in them to form the basis for fertile soils.
Area Handbook for Albania|Eugene K. Keefe
In the island of Guadaloupe there are mountains and fertile plains; it is watered by beautiful streams.
De Orbe Novo, Volume 1 (of 2)|Trans. by Francis Augustus MacNutt

British Dictionary definitions for fertile

fertile

adjective

capable of producing offspring

(of land) having nutrients capable of sustaining an abundant growth of plants
(of farm animals) capable of breeding stock

biology

capable of undergoing growth and developmentfertile seeds; fertile eggs
(of plants) capable of producing gametes, spores, seeds, or fruits

producing many offspring; prolific

highly productive; rich; abundanta fertile brain

physics (of a substance) able to be transformed into fissile or fissionable material, esp in a nuclear reactor

conducive to productivenessfertile rain

Derived Formsfertilely, adverbfertileness, noun

Word Origin for fertile

C15: from Latin fertilis, from ferre to bear

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

Word Origin and History for fertile

fertile

adj.

mid-15c., from Middle French fertil and directly from Latin fertilis "bearing in abundance, fruitful, productive," from ferre "to bear" (see infer). Fertile Crescent (1914) was coined by U.S. archaeologist James H. Breasted (1865-1935).

Medicine definitions for fertile