fructification
Americannoun
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act of fructifying; the fruiting of a plant, fungus, etc.
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the fruit itself.
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the organs of fruiting; fruiting body.
noun
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the act or state of fructifying
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the fruit of a seed-bearing plant
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any spore-bearing structure in ferns, mosses, fungi, etc
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The producing of fruit by an angiosperm.
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A seed-bearing or spore-bearing structure.
Etymology
Origin of fructification
1605–15; < Late Latin frūctificātion- (stem of frūctificātiō ) a bearing of fruit, equivalent to Latin frūctificāt ( us ) (past participle of frūctificāre; see fructify) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
Fructification is the process of growing fruit. During fructification, a pear tree will first grow fragrant blossoms before they develop into delicious pears. When a plant undergoes fructification, you can also say it fructifies, or develops so that it can produce fruit. Both words stem from the Latin fructificare, "bear fruit," and its root fructus, which means both "fruit" and "profit or enjoyment." You can use fructification in this figurative way too, to mean "make productive." You might say, "The fructification of my lemonade stand means I can pay you back for all that sugar I borrowed!"
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.
A spore borne at the extremity of the cells of fructification in fungi.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Noah Webster
The larger species assumed a complexity in the structure of their stems unknown in their modern congeners, and enabling them to grow to a great height;31 but their foliage and fructification were not correspondingly advanced.
From The Chain of Life in Geological Time A Sketch of the Origin and Succession of Animals and Plants by Sir J. William Dawson
In New Zealand the plant is different, being a single stem from six to ten inches high: its apex, when in a state of fructification, resembles the club-headed bulrush in miniature.
From Notes and Queries, Vol. III, Number 83, May 31, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Geneologists, etc by Various
The fructification forms in the substance of the tips of the frond: the rough dots mark the places where the conceptacles open.
From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Asa Gray
At the apex of the stem appears the fructification, as it is called for lack of a better term, in the form of a short spike or head.
From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Asa Gray
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.
