fertile. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

fertile

SYLLABICATION:	fer·tile
PRONUNCIATION:	fûrtl
ADJECTIVE:	1. Biology a. Capable of initiating, sustaining, or supporting reproduction. b. Capable of growing and developing; able to mature: a fertile egg. 2. Botany Bearing functional reproductive structures such as seeds or fruit or material such as spores or pollen. 3. Bearing or producing crops or vegetation abundantly; fruitful. 4. Rich in material needed to sustain plant growth: fertile soil. 5. Highly or continuously productive; prolific: a fertile imagination; a fertile source of new ideas. 6. Physics Capable of producing fissionable material: fertile thorium 232.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English fertil, from Old French fertile, from Latin fertilis, from ferre, to bear. See bher-¹ in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS:	fertile·ly —ADVERB fertile·ness —NOUN
SYNONYMS:	fertile, fecund, fruitful, productive, prolific These adjectives mean marked by great productivity: fertile farmland; a fecund imagination; fruitful efforts; a productive meeting; a prolific writer.


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.