Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of fecundating; impregnation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Biol.) The act by which, either in animals or plants, material prepared by the generative organs the female organism is brought in contact with matter from the organs of the male, so that a new organism results; impregnation; fertilization.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The process whereby a new organism is produced by fertilization

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun creation by the physical union of male and female gametes; of sperm and ova in an animal or pollen and ovule in a plant
  • noun making fertile as by applying fertilizer or manure

Etymologies

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Examples

  • -- After the union of the two elements, known as fecundation or _conception_, if the conditions are favorable, development occurs, and the little germ is in due process of time developed into an individual which is an exact counterpart of its parents.

    Plain Facts for Old and Young John Harvey Kellogg 1897

  • -- After the union of the two elements, known as fecundation, or conception, if the conditions are favorable, development occurs; and the little germ is in due process of time developed into an individual which is an exact counterpart of its parents.

    Plain facts for old and young : embracing the natural history and hygiene of organic life. 1877

  • If you bring a dog with you, I give you fair warning he will not be admitted; or, if you presume to pluck a flower, I shall dock you of your dinner on that unfortunate day; — why, you might chance to pluck one undergoing the delicate process of cross-fecundation, and blast my hopes of a variety in the species! — the very notion is distressing!!! — the fact would be afflicting beyond measure!!!

    New Letters from Charles Brown to Joseph Severn 2007

  • This might happen (1) by the fecundated ova passing, in the course of their development, under particular circumstances, into higher forms; (2) by the primitive and later organisms producing other organisms without fecundation, out of germs or eggs

    Essays 2007

  • He proposed to set up there a national fertilising farm to be named OMPHALOS with an obelisk hewn and erected after the fashion of Egypt and to offer his dutiful yeoman services for the fecundation of any female of what grade of life soever who should there direct to him with the desire of fulfilling the functions of her natural.

    Ulysses 2003

  • All these symbols of fecundation, these perfumes, radiations, and breathings overwhelmed him.

    Salammbo 2003

  • In the stomach of the mosquito a process of fecundation at first takes place; the form of the parasite, thereby produced, penetrates the stomach wall, embedded in which it grows to button-like structures projecting into the body-cavity.

    Physiology or Medicine 1902 - Presentation Speech 1967

  • As is well known, plants contain more or less strongly smelling components, which play an important part in their vital functions and particularly in their fecundation.

    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1910 - Presentation Speech 1966

  • What we see in the process of fecundation is a foreshadowing of the future man and woman.

    Woman Her Sex and Love Life William J. Robinson

  • [3] The ovum is really the fully mature egg ready for fecundation; before maturity it should not be called ovum but oöcyte; and in advanced treatises it is so referred to.

    Woman Her Sex and Love Life William J. Robinson

Comments

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  • the event that occurred at the beginning of something!

    March 13, 2009