Wordwyrt

fertility

/fəˈtɪləti/fur-TIH-luh-tee
/fɚˈtɪləti/fur-TIH-luh-tee

Meaningthe state or quality of being fruitful

Common meaning: the quality of being fertile

Journey through time

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bhar-‘bear, carry’source
  2. Latinfertilis‘fruitful’source
  3. Old Frenchfertilesource
  4. Englishfertile‘productive’
  5. Englishformed in English from fertilefertility‘the quality of being fertile’ · today

Sources & notes

Inferred source: no dictionary we use has an entry for this exact word. Its history is worked out from closely related, listed words in the same family, and we are trusting that link, so bear that in mind. Inferred meaning: the state or quality of being fruitful. It can be inferred from any of: fertile.

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Formed in English from fertile + -ity (inferred: this exact word is not listed in our dictionaries).

Source words

  • fertilis Latin · source word “fruitful”

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