fer·tile (fûr tl)adj.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.
[Middle English fertil, from Old French fertile, from Latin fertilis, from ferre, to bear; see bher-1 in Indo-European roots.]
fer tile·ly adv. fer tile·ness n. 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. |