fertile

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

adj. prolific, productive, fruitful, rich; creative, inventive. See production, imagination. Ant., infertile, barren.

II

(Roget's IV) modif.

1. [ Said of land ]

Syn. fruitful, rich, productive, fat, teeming, yielding, plenteous, prolific, black, arable, flowering, bearing, lush, flowing with milk and honey.

Ant. sterile*, barren, desert.

2. [ Said of females ]

Syn. fecund, prolific, generative, bearing, bringing forth, breeding, pregnant, gravid, with child.

Ant. sterile*, infertile, barren.

3. [ Said of the mind, imagination, etc. ]

Syn. inventive, resourceful, imaginative; see original 2 .

Syn.- fertile implies a producing, or the power of producing, fruit or offspring, and may be used figuratively of the mind; fecund implies the abundant production of offspring or fruit, or, figuratively, of creations of the mind; fruitful specifically suggests the bearing of much fruit, but it is also used to imply fertility (of soil or plants) or to that which produces favorable or profitable results, etc.; prolific , a close synonym for fecund , more often carries connotations of rapid production or reproduction and is often derogatory [ a prolific species, a prolific writer ]

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) a.

productive, fecund, fruitful, reproductive, generative, potent, yielding, rich, teeming, prolific, bountiful.

ANT.: sterile, barren, impotent, unproductive

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) adjective 1. Capable of reproducing: fecund, fruitful, productive, prolific. Biology: proliferous. See RICH. 2. Characterized by great productivity: fecund, fruitful, productive, prolific, rich. See RICH.