productive
/pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/adjective
productive is spelled P-R-O-D-U-C-T-I-V-E: 10 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,934th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, productive means “Capable of producing something, especially in abundance; fertile” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in productive?
| Letters | 10: P-R-O-D-U-C-T-I-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 17 times per million words; the 4,934th 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 productive?
Productive appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,934th 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 productive?
- /pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/
- /pɹəˈdʌk.təv/
Productive has 3 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-productive.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of productive
- more productive comparative
- most productive superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does productive mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Capable of producing something, especially in abundance; fertile.
- 2
Yielding good or useful results; constructive.
- 3
Of, or relating to the creation of goods or services.
- 4
Consistently applicable to any of an open set of words.
- 5
Of a cough, producing mucus or sputum from the respiratory tract.
- 6
Of inflammation, producing new tissue.
- 7
A type of set of natural numbers, related to mathematical logic; a set S is productive if there exists a total recursive function f such that ∀x∈ℕ,~~W_x⊆S⇒f(x)∈A⧵W_x, where W_x is a recursive function whose Gödel number is x.
a productive set
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Productive in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | productif |
| German | produktiv , konstruktiv |
| Portuguese | produtivo |
| Spanish | productivo, producente |
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 productive come from?
Borrowed from Late Latin productivus, equivalent to product + -ive.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).