fecundity

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin fēcunditās (fruitfulness, fertility), from fēcundus.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA(key): /fɪˈkʌndɪtɪ/
  • (file)
  • Hyphenation: fe‧cun‧di‧ty

Noun

fecundity (usually uncountable, plural fecundities)

  1. Ability to produce offspring.
    • 2006, Neil Gaiman, “Neil Gaiman on Terry Pratchett” in: Good Omens, Corgi, p. 410
      In the early days the reviewers compared him to the late Douglas Adams, but then Terry went on to write books as enthusiastically as Douglas avoided writing them, and now, if there is any comparison to be made of anything from the formal rules of a Pratchett novel to the sheer prolific fecundity of the man, it might be to P. G. Wodehouse.
  2. Ability to cause growth.
  3. Number, rate, or capacity of offspring production.
  4. Rate of production of young by a female.

Synonyms

Translations

Further reading

  • fecundity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
  • fecundity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
  • fecundity in the Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, English section, second edition, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, Liège, 1982
  • fecundity at OneLook Dictionary Search
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