Dictionary

fecundity en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (California) audio
• /fɪˈkʌndɪtɪ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• [fɪˈkʌndəɾɪ] (Australia, Canada, US)
• /fɪˈkʌndətɪ/ (Australia, Canada, US)

Etymology

From Latin fēcunditās (“fruitfulness, fertility”), from fēcundus, equivalent to fecund + -ity.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) Ability to produce offspring.
   • In the early days the reviewers compared him to the late Douglas Adams, but then Terry went on to write books as enthusiastically as Douglas avoided writing them, and now, if there is any comparison to be made of anything from the formal rules of a Pratchett novel to the sheer prolific fecundity of the man, it might be to P. G. Wodehouse. 2006, Neil Gaiman, “Neil Gaiman on Terry Pratchett”, in Good Omens, Corgi, page 410:
2. (uncountable, usually) Ability to cause growth or increase.
   • [I]t would not be very much less absurd for someone to write about New York City after having spent only a few years or a few decades in this metropolis of inexhaustible adventure, of terrifying emotional fecundity, of uncapturable character. 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 52:
3. (uncountable, usually) Number, rate, or capacity of offspring production.
   • The soil spawned humanity, as it bred frogs in the Rains, and the gap of the sickness of one season was filled to overflowing by the fecundity of the next. 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 29:
4. (uncountable, usually) Rate of production of young by a female.

Forms

Deriveds

antifecundity · infecundity · subfecundity · superfecundity

Relateds

fecund · fecundation

Synonyms

fertility (ability to produce offspring) · fertileness (ability to produce offspring)

Translations (57)

lv auglīgums (ability to cause growth) · id fekunditas (rate or capacity of offspring production) · nl vruchtbaarheid (rate of production of young by a female) · de Fertilität (rate or capacity of offspring production) · de Fortpflanzungsfähigkeit (ability to produce offspring) · fr fécondité (ability to produce offspring) · lv vaislība (ability to produce offspring) · fr fécondité (ability to cause growth) · cs plodnost (ability to produce offspring) · nl vruchtbaarheid (rate or capacity of offspring production) · ru плодови́тость (ability to produce offspring) · mi makurutanga (ability to cause growth) · de Gestaltungskraft (ability to produce offspring) · ru плодови́тость (rate or capacity of offspring production) · pt fecundidade (ability to produce offspring) · sv fruktsamhet (ability to produce offspring) · mi matahuatanga (ability to produce offspring) · lv auglība (ability to cause growth) · cmn 生育力 (ability to produce offspring) · fa بارآوری (rate or capacity of offspring production) · cmn 生殖力 (ability to produce offspring) · ru плодоро́дие (ability to cause growth) · lv auglīgums (ability to produce offspring) · de Fertilität (ability to produce offspring) · lv vaislīgums (ability to produce offspring) · lv rasma (ability to cause growth) · hu termékenység (ability to produce offspring) · da frugtbarhed (ability to produce offspring) · io fekundeso (ability to produce offspring) · bg плодовитост (rate or capacity of offspring production) · pt fertilidade (ability to cause growth) · nl vruchtbaarheid (ability to cause growth) · de Fertilität (ability to cause growth) · lv auglība (ability to produce offspring) · de Schöpfungskraft (ability to produce offspring) · de Fruchtbarkeit (rate or capacity of offspring production) · ru плодови́тость (rate of production of young by a female) · de Fruchtbarkeit (ability to cause growth) · bg плодовитост (ability to produce offspring) · de Fruchtbarkeit (ability to produce offspring) · nl vruchtbaarheid (ability to produce offspring) · de Produktivität (ability to cause growth) · lv rasmīgums (ability to cause growth) · pt fecundidade (rate or capacity of offspring production) · id fekunditas (rate of production of young by a female) · fr fécondité (rate or capacity of offspring production) · fi lisääntymiskyky (ability to produce offspring) · ga bisiúlacht (ability to cause growth) · fa بارآوری (ability to produce offspring) · ga bisiúlacht (ability to produce offspring) · grc εὐγονία (ability to produce offspring) · pt fertilidade (ability to produce offspring) · cmn 繁殖力 (ability to produce offspring) · pt fecundidade (ability to cause growth) · pt fecundidade (rate of production of young by a female) · fi fertiliteetti (ability to produce offspring) · cs plodnost (rate or capacity of offspring production)