fecund
adjective
ˈfē- 
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Fecund and its synonyms fruitful and fertile all mean producing or capable of producing offspring or fruit, literally or figuratively. Fecund applies to things that yield offspring, fruit, or results in abundance or with rapidity ("a fecund herd," "a fecund imagination"). Fruitful emphasizes abundance, too, and often adds the implication that the results attained are desirable or useful ("fruitful plains," "a fruitful discussion"). Fertile implies the power to reproduce ("a fertile egg") or the power to assist in reproduction, growth, or development ("fertile soil," "a fertile climate for artists").
Synonyms
- cornucopian
- fat
- fertile
- fructuous
- fruitful
- lush
- luxuriant
- productive
- prolific
- rich
Example Sentences
Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 9 Sep. 2022 For as fecund as Peak TV has been during the past decade, the glut hasn’t exactly yielded boundless perfection. Robyn Bahr, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 June 2022 Also of note: wild creations like topcoats in fecund floral prints, monogram logo jeans that alluded to Canal Street knockoffs and duffle bags with extraneous doodads that looked like rock climbing holds. Jacob Gallagher, WSJ, 26 Jan. 2022 Getting to AltaGracia is a memorable experience in and of itself: travelers fly into San José and take a small prop plane about 90 miles south to the fecund province of Pérez Zeledón. Jessie Heyman, Vogue, 17 Dec. 2021 The decaying remains of those fecund swamp forests became Alabama’s coal fields, especially throughout Jefferson, Walker, and Tuscaloosa Counties. Dennis Pillion | Dpillion@al.com, al, 1 Dec. 2021 One problem is that fisheries often target what scientists call BOFFFFs: big, old, fat, fecund, female fish. Matt Reynolds, Wired, 23 Nov. 2021 After beavers almost went extinct by the mid-19th century, fashions shifted and Canada’s fecund beavers rebounded. New York Times, 20 Nov. 2021 In the several years since his return, however, Beaujard has lavished the two-bedroom home with the full force of his fecund imagination, blending his signature theatricality with a new dose of insouciance. New York Times, 10 Nov. 2021 See More Word History
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin fecundus — more at feminine
15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Medical Definition
fecund
adjective
ˈfēk- fecund
adjective
Synonyms & Similar Words
- fertile
- prolific
- rich
- fruitful
- productive
- lush
- generative
- creative
- inventive
- luxuriant
- abundant
- producing
- plentiful
- bountiful
- generous
- cornucopian
- yielding
- bearing
- fructuous
- fat
- teeming
- copious
- thriving
- abounding
- swarming
- blooming
- liberal
- bursting
- flourishing
- original
- plenteous
- plenitudinous
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- sterile
- barren
- infertile
- unproductive
- dead
- unfruitful
- unfertile
- sparse
- scanty
- meager
- scant
- spare
- meagre
- skimpy
- skimp
Synonym Chooser
Some common synonyms of fecund are fertile, fruitful, and prolific. While all these words mean "producing or capable of producing offspring or fruit," fecund emphasizes abundance or rapidity in bearing fruit or offspring.
The synonyms fertile and fecund are sometimes interchangeable, but fertile implies the power to reproduce in kind or to assist in reproduction and growth; applied figuratively, it suggests readiness of invention and development.
Fruitful adds to fertile and fecund the implication of desirable or useful results.
The words prolific and fecund can be used in similar contexts, but prolific stresses rapidity of spreading or multiplying by or as if by natural reproduction.