Word of the Day

: September 3, 2019

fecund

adjective FEK-und

What It Means

1 : fruitful in offspring or vegetation : prolific

2 : intellectually productive or inventive to a marked degree

fecund in Context

As an artist, she gets most of her inspiration from nature; her daily walks in the woods are a fecund source of ideas.

"As if there aren't enough bugs around, get this: insects are amazingly fecund and can reproduce quickly, laying thousands of eggs in a short time." — Terri Schlichenmeyer, The Montgomery Herald (Oak Hill, West Virginia), 23 July 2019

Did You Know?

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").