Dictionary

fecund en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈfi.kənd/ (General-American)
• /ˈfɛk.ənd/ (General-American)
• /ˈfɛk.ənd/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle French fécond, from Latin fēcundus (“fertile”), which is related to fētus and fēmina (“woman”).

Meanings

1. (formal) Highly fertile; able to produce offspring.
   • The number of children per woman depends, as has been said, on biological and social factors which determine: (1) the frequency of births during a woman's fecund period, and (2) the portion of the fecund period--between puberty and menopause--effectively utilized for reproduction. 2001, Massimo Livi Bacci, A Concise History of World Population, page 9:
   • The druids […] believed that mistletoe could make barren animals fecund, and that it was an antidote to all poisons. 2014 December 23, Olivia Judson, “The hemiparasite season [print version: Under the hemiparasite, International New York Times, 24–25 December 2014, p. 7]”, in The New York Times:
2. (figuratively) Leading to new ideas or innovation.
   • This idea of Aristotle's has proved marvellously fecund; and in truth it is the only idea covering quite the whole area of cenoscopy that has shown any marked uberosity. 1906, Charles Sanders Peirce, “The Basis of Pragmatism in the Normative Sciences”, in The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings, volume II, page 373:

Forms

Antonyms

infecund · barren · unproductive

Deriveds

superfecund · fecundly · fecundate · fecundability · fecundist · infecund · fecundize · unfecund · fecundation · fecundify

Relateds

fecundity

Synonyms

prolific · fertile · productive · fruitful · battle · childing

Translations (29)

de fruchtbar (leading to new ideas or innovation) · bg плодотворен (leading to new ideas or innovation) · hy արգասավոր (leading to new ideas or innovation) · hu termékeny (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · mi matahua (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · da frugtbar (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · io fekunda (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · de fruchtbar (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · hy պտղաբեր (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · tr feyyaz (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · tr üretken (leading to new ideas or innovation) · ga bisiúil (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · tr verimli (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · hy պտղավետ (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · lv auglīgs (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · de produktiv (leading to new ideas or innovation) · tr doğurgan (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · lv vaislīgs (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · hu termékeny (leading to new ideas or innovation) · es fecundo (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · hy բեղմնավոր (leading to new ideas or innovation) · tr mahsuldar (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · ru плодови́тый (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · fr fécond (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · sv fruktbar (leading to new ideas or innovation) · la fēcundus (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · bg плодовит (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · tr gür (highly fertile; able to produce offspring) · tr bitek (highly fertile; able to produce offspring)