fertile
/ˈfɝːtəl/adjective
fertile is spelled F-E-R-T-I-L-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, fertile means “Of land, etc.: capable of growing abundant crops; productive” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in fertile?
| Letters | 7: F-E-R-T-I-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.2 times per million words; the 12,578th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is fertile?
Fertile appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce fertile?
- UK /ˈfɜːtaɪl/
- UK /ˈfɜːtəl/
- US /ˈfɝːtəl/
Fertile has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-fertile.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of fertile
- more fertile comparative
- most fertile superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does fertile mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of land, etc.: capable of growing abundant crops; productive.
- 2
Of one's imagination, etc.: active, productive, prolific.
- 3
Capable of reproducing; fecund, fruitful.
Most women at the age of fifty are not fertile.
- 4
Capable of developing past the egg stage.
- 5
Not itself fissile, but able to be converted into a fissile material by irradiation in a reactor.
There are two basic fertile materials: uranium-238 and thorium-232.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Fertile in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense of land, etc.: capable of growing abundant crops:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does fertile come from?
From Middle English, from Middle French fertile, from Old French fertile, from Latin fertilis (“fruitful, fertile”), from ferō (“to bear, carry”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).