adj.1 a (of soil) producing abundant vegetation or crops. b fruitful.
2 a (of a seed, egg, etc.) capable of becoming a new individual. b (of animals and plants) able to conceive young or produce fruit.
3 (of the mind) inventive.
4 (of nuclear material) able to become fissile by the capture of neutrons.
Phrases and idioms:
Fertile Crescent the fertile region extending in a crescent shape from the E. Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.
Derivatives:
fertility n.
Etymology: ME f. F f. L fertilis