fertile

C2+ Topic:Family & Relationships

US /ˈfɜrtəl/ UK /ˈfɜːtaɪl/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
capable of producing abundant growth or offspring; productive

The valley's fertile soil yields three harvests a year.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · capable of producing... productive fruitful prolific fecund rich abundant generative

Opposites

barren infertile sterile unproductive

Word family

Derived forms fertilelyfertileness fertility fertilize

Related forms fertilizerfertilization

Common collocations

fertile land Adjective + noun

Etymology

From Old French fertile, from Latin fertilis ('fruitful, productive'), from ferre ('to bear, carry'), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- ('to bear, carry').

fertilis Latin ferre Middle English *bʰer- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Family & Relationships

External links

# fertile

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈfɜrtəl/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈfɜːtaɪl/

## Meanings
1. capable of producing abundant growth or offspring; productive

## Examples
- The valley's fertile soil yields three harvests a year.

## Synonyms
- productive
- fruitful
- prolific
- fecund
- rich
- abundant
- generative

## Antonyms
- barren
- infertile
- sterile
- unproductive

## Derived Forms
- fertilely
- fertileness
- fertility
- fertilize

## Related Forms
- fertilizer
- fertilization

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: fertilis
- Root: ferre
- Root: *bʰer-

## Etymology
From Old French fertile, from Latin fertilis ('fruitful, productive'), from ferre ('to bear, carry'), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- ('to bear, carry').

## AI Etymology
Fertile is from Old French fertile, from Latin fertilis ('fruitful, productive'), from ferre ('to bear, carry'), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- ('to bear, carry'). Important recorded forms include fertilis (Latin), ferre (Latin), and *bʰer- (Proto-Indo-European). The current sense covers capable of producing abundant growth or offspring; productive. The wider family includes derived forms such as fertilely, fertileness, fertility, and fertilize and related words such as fertilizer and fertilization.

## Topics
- Family & Relationships

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