fertile

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

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

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

fertile land
land that is productive and well suited to growing crops

Adjective + noun

Simplified etymology

Fertile entered English in the late Middle English period and comes from the Latin ferre word family, with the associated sense “bearing.”

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

Describing Qualities

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
- Describing Qualities

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