fertilizer

American  

[fur-tl-ahy-zer] / ˈfɜr tlˌaɪ zər /

noun

• fertilizers
  plural

1. any substance used to fertilize the soil, especially a commercial or chemical manure.

2. a person, insect, etc., that fertilizes an animal or plant.

   Bees are fertilizers of flowers.

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fertilizer British  

/ ˈfɜːtɪˌlaɪzə /

noun

1. any substance, such as manure or a mixture of nitrates, added to soil or water to increase its productivity

2. an object or organism such as an insect that fertilizes an animal or plant

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fertilizer Scientific  

/ fûr′tl-ī′zər /

1. Any of a large number of natural and synthetic materials, including manure and compounds containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, spread on or worked into soil to increase its capacity to support plant growth. Synthetic fertilizers can greatly increase the productivity of soil but have high energy costs, since fossil fuels are required as a source of hydrogen, which is necessary to fix nitrogen in ammonia.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• fertilizers
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of fertilizer

First recorded in 1655–65; fertilize + -er ¹

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Explanation

Material you add to a garden to increase the nutrients in the soil and help plants grow is called fertilizer. If your rosebushes are looking a little sad, you might want to try using fertilizer. To fertilize is to make something fertile, or to encourage it to grow or reproduce. These words, along with fertilizer, come from the Latin fertilis, "bearing in abundance, fruitful, or productive." The most common kind of organic fertilizer is animal manure or peat, and other fertilizers are made of specific nutrients like nitrogen or potassium. Fertilizers are usually solid, though they come in liquid form as well.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fertilizer fertilizers

He referred to the rise of food security problems as a result of energy, fertilizer and agricultural products being unable to reach their destinations as sea lanes come under attack.

From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026

Instead, the Russian president offered to increase Russian fertilizer exports to U.S. farmers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026

Farmers tend to reduce fertilizer usage in response to higher prices, which reduces future crop yields, or reduces acreage.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

The strait normally carries about half of global fertilizer feedstock exports and one-third of global urea exports, but shipments through the waterway had not materially recovered as of early September.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026

Things like cleaning the stalls and shoveling manure and taking it to the fertilizer pile, and feeding and watering the animals.

From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis

Schacht said some fertilizers he needs for the next planting season have doubled in price.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

Shipments of liquefied natural gas, fertilizers and other commodities also remain stuck in the Gulf, choking the economies of Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq and Bahrain—nations that don’t have alternative sea outlets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026

It is then converted into sulfuric acid, which reacts with mined phosphate rock to produce phosphoric acid used to make phosphate fertilizers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

These include keeping soil permanently covered, applying compost, using more diverse crop rotations and reducing the use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026

There was no free fuel for its aging factories, no guaranteed market for its often-shoddy goods, and no access to cheap, Soviet-made chemical fertilizers on which state farms had become dependent.

From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden

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Related Words

• manure

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