bearing, producing, or capable of producing vegetation, crops, etc., abundantly; prolific: fertile soil.
2.
bearing or capable of bearing offspring.
3.
abundantly productive: a fertile imagination.
4.
producing an abundance (usually fol. by of or in): a land fertile of wheat.
5.
conducive to productiveness: fertile showers.
6.
Biology.
a.
fertilized, as an egg or ovum; fecundated.
b.
capable of growth or development, as seeds or eggs.
7.
Botany.
a.
capable of producing sexual reproductive structures.
b.
capable of causing fertilization, as an anther with fully developed pollen.
c.
having spore-bearing organs, as a frond.
8.
Physics. (of a nuclide) capable of being transmuted into a fissile nuclide by irradiation with neutrons: Uranium 238 and thorium 232 are fertile nuclides. Compare fissile(def. 2).
9.
produced in abundance.
[Origin: 1425–75; late ME (< MF) < L fertilis fruitful, akin to ferre to bear1; see -ile]
Fertile Crescent, historic region of the Middle East. A well-watered and fertile area, it arcs across the northern part of the Syrian desert. It is flanked on the west by the Mediterranean and on the east by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and includes all or parts of Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. From antiquity this region was the site of settlements and the scene of bloody raids and invasions.
![[P]](http://cache.lexico.com/g/r/premium_mh.gif){kind=small}
Audio Help [fur-tl or, especially Brit., -tahyl] Pronunciation Key