fertilize
Americanverb (used with object)
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Biology.
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to render (the female gamete) capable of development by uniting it with the male gamete.
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to fecundate or impregnate (an animal or plant).
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to make fertile; enrich.
to fertilize farmland.
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to make productive.
verb
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to provide (an animal, plant, or egg cell) with sperm or pollen to bring about fertilization
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to supply (soil or water) with mineral and organic nutrients to aid the growth of plants
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to make fertile or productive
Other Word Forms
- fertilizability noun
- fertilizable adjective
- overfertilize verb (used with object)
- prefertilize verb (used with object)
- refertilizable adjective
- refertilize verb (used with object)
- unfertilizable adjective
- unfertilized adjective
- unfertilizing adjective
Etymology
Origin of fertilize
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.
In regions north of the Antarctic Polar Front -- a boundary where cold Antarctic waters meet warmer waters to the north -- that dust helped fertilize algae.
From Science Daily • Feb. 4, 2026
But syrup producers do not plant, irrigate, fertilize or use insecticides on their self-sufficient forests.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 24, 2025
Whether we use it to fertilize a resurgent democracy, or throw it in everyone’s face, including our own, is really up to us.
From Salon • Mar. 6, 2025
Surface water, for example, could have runoff that includes nitrate used to fertilize land in agricultural areas.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 22, 2024
I could see it happening: the flowers are turned upward, and if the sraf were falling straight down, it would enter their petals and fertilize them like pollen from the stars.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
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.
