fruition

noun

fru·ition frü-ˈi-shən

Synonyms of fruition next

: pleasurable use or possession : enjoyment

the sweet fruition of an earthly crown—

Christopher Marlowe

: the state of bearing fruit

the fields needed rain for fruition—

Pearl Buck

: realization

Did you know?

Fruition must come from the word fruit, right? Not exactly. Fruition and fruit are related (both ultimately come from the Latin verb frui, meaning "to enjoy"), but they were derived independently. The original meaning of fruition had nothing to do with fruit. Rather, when the term was first used in the early 15th century, it meant only "pleasurable use or possession." Not until the 19th century did fruition develop a second meaning, "the state of bearing fruit," possibly as the result of a mistaken assumption that fruition evolved from fruit. The "state of bearing fruit" sense was followed quickly by the figurative application to anything that can be "realized" and metaphorically bear fruit, such as a plan or a project.

Example Sentences

These were dreams of long standing that had finally come to fruition … —

Nicholas Fraser, Harper's, September 1996

Truth is a weapon so powerful that the slowness of its fruition matters little in the end. —

Edith Hamilton, New Yorker, 12 Sept. 1994

The ground thaws, the sap flows, then comes the leaf, the bud, the full flowering of national and individual entitlements, an unstoppable surge toward the glorious fruition promised by the idea of independence. —

Janette Turner Hospital, New York Times Book Review, 30 Dec. 1990

when she landed the lead in a Broadway play, a lifelong dream was brought to fruition

Recent Examples on the Web Two months later, the baseball calendar is at a point where such deals sometimes come to fruition. —

Alex Speier, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Mar. 2023 And that was a dream of mine for a very long time that just didn't come to fruition. —

Steve Baltin, Forbes, 17 Mar. 2023 More than three years and four full rounds of negotiations later, the critics’ warnings have come to fruition. —

Andrew Couts, WIRED, 15 Mar. 2023 At one point in 2021, the space agency’s inspector general, Paul Martin, warned that significant delays in bringing new spacesuits to fruition would quash NASA’s goal of getting humans to the moon by 2024. —

Jackie Wattles, CNN, 15 Mar. 2023 To think none of this would’ve come to fruition had Choi chosen to spend an otherwise boring day differently. —

Nerisha Penrose, ELLE, 15 Mar. 2023 Saturday and Sunday will see a 20% chance of rain showers, though the weather service is unsure if the prediction will come to fruition. —

Sydney Carruth, The Arizona Republic, 15 Mar. 2023 Amatssou may not have come to fruition if not for Jack White, who invited Tinariwen to record at his private Nashville studio in 2021 with Lanois and local country musicians Wes Corbett and Fats Kaplin. —

Jonathan Cohen, SPIN, 14 Mar. 2023 That shared emotion of Yeoh’s win came to fruition and was ultimately captured onstage by the Oscars telecast cameras. —

Abbey White, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Mar. 2023 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fruition.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English fruicioun, from Anglo-French or Late Latin; Anglo-French fruicion, from Late Latin fruition-, fruitio, from Latin frui — see fruit entry 1

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of fruition was in the 15th century

See more words from the same century