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Fecund has been flourishing in the English language and describing fructuous things since the 15th century. It ultimately made its way into the English lexicon through the Latin adjective fecundus, meaning "fruitful." Fecund applies to things that yield offspring or fruit or results in abundance or with rapidity, as in "a fecund herd" or "a fecund imagination." Its synonyms fruitful and fertile also describe things that produce or are capable of producing offspring or fruit, literally or figuratively. Fruitful emphasizes abundance, too, often with the added implication that the results attained are desirable or useful ("fruitful plains," "a fruitful discussion"), while 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"). Fecund is a tad more literary and formal than either of these synonyms.
Examples of fecund in a Sentence
Olivia James, Outside Online, 24 Apr. 2025
Those resources proved to be less fecund than anticipated.
—Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 28 Mar. 2025
Though this arrangement is a complicated one, the sharing and licensing of rights has allowed Bond to emerge as a lucrative and fecund product line.
—Colin Burnett, The Conversation, 7 Mar. 2025
From the fecund mind of the Coen brothers, this modern-day Western was hailed as a classic nearly from the moment of its independent release.
—Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Dec. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Fecund.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fecund. Accessed 24 May. 2025.
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