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fruitful

/ˈfrutfəl/
/ˈfrutfəl/
IPA guide

When something is fruitful, it's productive — but you don't have to produce fruit in order to be fruitful. You could have a fruitful trip to the mall if you come home with a slew of snappy new outfits.

There's a famous line from the Bible: "Be fruitful and multiply." That gives you a pretty good sense of the word: fruitful activity multiplies or adds to what's already there, producing more of something. A couple is fruitful if they have children: the more children, the more fruitful. An artist is fruitful if they create a lot of artwork. A business is fruitful if it creates profits and expands. Anything fruitful is productive: it grows and produces, much like a fruit tree.

Definitions of fruitful
  1. adjective
    productive or conducive to producing in abundance
    “be fruitful and multiply”
    synonyms:
    fertile
    capable of reproducing
    baccate, bacciferous, berried
    producing or bearing berries
    blue-fruited
    bearing blue fruit
    bountiful, plentiful
    producing in abundance
    breeding
    producing offspring or set aside especially for producing offspring
    dark-fruited
    bearing dark fruit
    fat, fertile, productive, rich
    marked by great fruitfulness
    generative, procreative, reproductive
    producing new life or offspring
    high-yield
    yielding a large amount of agricultural or industrial production
    oval-fruited
    bearing oval fruit
    fertile, prolific
    bearing in abundance especially offspring
    red-fruited
    bearing red fruit
    round-fruited
    bearing round fruit
    small-fruited
    bearing small fruit
    productive
    producing or capable of producing (especially abundantly)
    see moresee less
    antonyms:
    unfruitful
    not fruitful; not conducive to abundant production
    infertile, sterile, unfertile
    incapable of reproducing
    abortive, stillborn
    failing to accomplish an intended result
    acarpous
    producing no fruit
    childless
    without offspring
Pronunciation
US
/ˈfrutfəl/
UK
/ˈfrutfəl/
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