fecundity

English

Alternative forms

• fœcundity (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin fēcunditās (“fruitfulness, fertility”), from fēcundus, equivalent to fecund +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /fɪˈkʌndɪtɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (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, page 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 or increase.
   • 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 52:

     [I]t would not be very much less absurd for someone to write about New York City after having spent only a few years or a few decades in this metropolis of inexhaustible adventure, of terrifying emotional fecundity, of uncapturable character.

3. Number, rate, or capacity of offspring production.
4. Rate of production of young by a female.

Synonyms

• (ability to produce offspring): fertileness, fertility

Related terms

• fecund
• fecundation

Translations

ability to produce offspring

• Bulgarian: плодовитост (bg) f (plodovitost)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 繁殖力 (zh) (fánzhílì), 生殖力 (zh) (shēngzhílì), 生育力 (shēngyùlì)

• Czech: plodnost (cs) f
• Dutch: vruchtbaarheid (nl) f
• Finnish: lisääntymiskyky, fertiliteetti (fi)
• French: fécondité (fr) f
• German: Fruchtbarkeit (de) f, Fertilität (de) f, Fortpflanzungsfähigkeit f, Schöpfungskraft f, Gestaltungskraft f
• Greek:

  Ancient: εὐγονία f (eugonía)

• Hungarian: termékenység (hu)
• Ido: fekundeso (io)
• Irish: bisiúlacht f
• Latvian: vaislība f, vaislīgums m, auglība f, auglīgums m
• Maori: matahuatanga
• Persian: بارآوری (fa) (bâr-âvari)
• Portuguese: fecundidade f, fertilidade (pt) f
• Russian: плодови́тость (ru) f (plodovítostʹ)
• Swedish: fruktsamhet (sv) c

ability to cause growth

• Dutch: vruchtbaarheid (nl) f
• French: fécondité (fr) f
• German: Fruchtbarkeit (de) f, Fertilität (de) f, Produktivität (de) f
• Irish: bisiúlacht f
• Latvian: auglība f, auglīgums m, rasma f (poetic), rasmīgums (poetic)
• Maori: makurutanga
• Portuguese: fecundidade f, fertilidade (pt) f
• Russian: плодоро́дие (ru) n (plodoródije) (soil)

rate or capacity of offspring production

• Bulgarian: плодовитост (bg) f (plodovitost)
• Czech: plodnost (cs) f
• Dutch: vruchtbaarheid (nl) f
• French: fécondité (fr) f
• German: Fruchtbarkeit (de) f, Fertilität (de) f
• Indonesian: fekunditas (id)
• Persian: بارآوری (fa)
• Portuguese: fecundidade f
• Russian: плодови́тость (ru) f (plodovítostʹ)

rate of production of young by a female

• Dutch: vruchtbaarheid (nl) f
• Indonesian: fekunditas (id)
• Portuguese: fecundidade f
• Russian: плодови́тость (ru) f (plodovítostʹ)

Further reading

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